hack: ReGather
by pizza blade
Summary: New World. New Heroes. New Legends.
1. Hack One

**-** English is not my first language, and I have never learned it in any kind of English language dedicated school and/or education, so _do not_ expect to see an exemplary use of English language in this story, nor any kind of Shakespearean vocabulary.

- Although the main characters featured in this story is new, original characters created by me, expect to see a lot of characters from .hack games to make their way here, such as Haseo, Atoli, Kuhn… etc, etc—and even the 'veterans' of the first .hack games such as Kite and Blackrose. Even C.C. Corp will make an appearance, although perhaps not in the ways you might expect…… As to what role they will play…… well, you just have to read and see it for yourself.

- I have _never_ experienced any .hack related anime, manga, novels, or any other .hack merchandises except for the games. Thus, any .hack knowledge I have is strictly derived from all seven .hack games (from Infection to G.U. Redemption) available on PS2. I apologize if, at times, I may appear to be…… somewhat imprecise of the "what's this and what's that" of .hack terms and technicalities.

- Any kind of feedbacks—preferably in the form of reviews—will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, and enjoy.

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**.Hack//ReGather**

A fan-fiction based on the video game series .Hack

Written and directed by: Pizza Blade

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(Loading)

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(Welcome to ALTIMIT Operating System Version 5.0c)

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-_Inserting disk_-

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(You are about to install this following program: The World: Three)

(Proceed?) (yes/no)

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(Thank you for purchasing The World: Three. Please wait while this installation program guides you through all the necessary requirements to successfully install this game into your PC)

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(Validating system requirements)………

……(System requirements check completed. Setup has verified that this PC is **more than sufficient** to play the game at its most optimum setting)

(Would you like to install this game into your PC right now?) (yes/no)

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(Please insert your validation code)

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-0102j- -2345c- -1234a- -9990z-

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(The World: Three will be installed in this following directory………)

(Confirm installation?) (yes/no)

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(Please wait while the installation setup installs the program into your PC)

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……(Setup has successfully installed The World: Three in your PC)

(To begin the game, please double click on the new The World: Three icon now available at your desktop, and follow the instructions once the program launches)

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(Have fun playing the newest version of the most popular online game in history, The World!)

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(Loading)

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_A particularly soothing music played itself in the background while loading process took place_.

_It was an orchestrated music very pleasant to the ears_. _Violin, flute, guitar, piano_……_ all arranged superbly and performed wonderfully_, _all meshing together to form the seemingly perfect harmony_.

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(Loading Completed)

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…_A beautifully rendered Planet Earth suddenly popped on the screen, along with a huge 'The World: Three' logo plastered on top of it, accompanied by a rather dramatic—but pleasing, nevertheless—music and sound effect_.

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_A message was displayed_.

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(The game has detected that you are currently using the Virtual Reality Displayer SCREENER V.02, and Virtual Reality Controller V32s, all compatible with The World: Three. Please wait while the game makes all the necessary adjustments to ensure the smoothness of your hardware performance while playing the game)

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(Adjustments completed)

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_A new set of pictures and text-boxes appeared on the screen_.

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(Please enter the name of your PC Playable Character . Note that this name will be used during your entire time playing The World: Three, and cannot be changed during the game. While it is entirely up to the player to choose whatever name they desire, we suggest that you do not choose an over the top or possibly offensive name for your PC)

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(**F**)

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(**FREY**)

(Is this name correct?) (yes/no)

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(Please choose the gender of your character) (Male/Female)

(ATTENTION: The World: Three **does not **restrict any classes to any specific gender. For example: the player may create a male healer or a female heavy warrior if it is desirable. Please choose this just with your own personal preference)

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(**MALE**)

(Is this gender correct?) (yes/no)

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(Please choose the race you want your characters be inside the game)

(HUMAN) (BEAST) (MECHANICAL)

(ATTENTION: The World: Three **does not **restrict any classes to any specific race. For example: the player may create a beast male healer or a female mechanical warrior if it is desirable. Please choose this just with your own personal preference)

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……(**HUMAN**)

(Is this race correct?) (yes/no)

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_A new set of graphics loaded_.

_It was a rather captivating sight_. _Dozens of various character models were displayed simultaneously on the screen_. _All models were lavishly and sharply designed_, _with each sported abound creativity and uniqueness_.

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_A message was displayed_.

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(Please choose your character's class. Please note that the character designs featured here are all just examples—you will have the freedom to design your own character suited to your preferences once you have decided which class you are going to use, although each designs are still restricted to the limits of the class you choose)

(**WARNING! YOU CANNOT CHANGE YOUR CLASS ONCE YOU CHOOSE ONE. MAKE SURE YOU CHOOSE A CLASS THAT BEST SUITS YOUR PLAYING STYLE TO ENSURE YOUR MAXIMUM ENJOYMENT OF THIS GAME**)

(**PLEASE READ CLASSES' DESCRIPTIONS THOROUGHLY TO HELP YOU DECIDE WHICH CLASS YOU WANT TO PLAY AS IN THIS GAME**)

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(The World: Three features many of the classes available from the previous versions of the game, while also at the same time adding new, original classes to ensure you have plenty of options to choose from a total of 13 classes. Please direct your pointer to each class you wish to choose or you wish to view the descriptions of)

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(**01. Twin Blades**. _Weapon of choice_: twin small blades, one on each hand. _Type_: Melee. _Strengths_: One of the most agile melee classes in the game, Twin Blades rely on their quick reflexes and blinding fast movements to launch a rapid succession of physical attacks to the enemy, leaving little to no room for the enemy to counter-attack. _Weaknesses_: mediocre defenses against both physical and magical attacks. This class is unable to equip heavy armor (only a light armor), making it especially susceptible to strong physical attacks from the enemy. Relatively unable to deal strong damages to the enemy, making it a hard class to use against enemies with especially strong defenses)

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(**2. Harvest Cleric**._Weapon of choice_: healer staffs. _Type_: Magic/Healing. _Strengths_: The strongest healing and restoration spells available only to this class, making a Harvest Cleric a very valuable asset to have in a battle against strong enemies where things may get easily out of hands. High defense against magical attacks, making magic attacks directed to the player much less effective than they normally would do. Also able to learn very basic offensive spells. _Weaknesses_: the weakest class in term of physical defense, plus a low HP, a player choosing this class must be especially aware to the danger posed by enemies with high physical attack stat, as three or four direct blows usually enough to dispose the player. Magic chanting requirement time may also make the player especially susceptible to enemy attacks, since movement is prohibited during magic initiation process. This class is also restricted on equipping only the weakest armor level possible in the game)

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(**3. Heavy Blade**. _Weapon of choice_: two handed broad-swords. _Type_: Melee. _Strengths_: One of the classes with the highest physical attack stats, this is a suitable class to choose for players wishing to deal massive and total destruction to the enemies with pure physical attacks mayhem. High HP, able to equip heavy armor, and high physical defense all make this class suitable to use toe-to-toe against enemies with high physical attacks. A competent "tank"-like character—its attacks also oftentimes affect a wide area, making this class a formidable foe even if enemies outnumber your allies. _Weaknesses_: Virtually no magical defense, making this class _the_ weakest link when players facing an enemies with especially high magical attack stat. Its low magical defense also makes this class much more vulnerable to status-altering spells, which oftentimes could make even the seemingly easiest battle turning to dangerous for your party. Slow attack speed also makes this class easier to evade, and careless players may find that they are getting overwhelmed by counter attacks before they can do anything about it)

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(**4. Shadow Warlock**. _Weapon of choice_: magical tomes. _Type_: Magic/Offensive. _Strengths_: This is the class with the highest magical attack stats, and many of the highest level offensive spells in this game available only exclusively to this class. Able to manipulate enemies' elemental weaknesses much easier compared to any other classes, making this class a suitable choice for various battle situations. This is also the class with the highest SP stat available in the game. _Weaknesses_: Only the very basic of healing and restoration spells available for this class, making it not suitable if the player prefer to do battle which require a lot of supports to gain victory. Offensive spells are among the most costly in terms of SP to cast, making SP restoring items practically a must for this class, making it a pretty expensive character to maintain effectively. Low defense and HP, and its movement speed are amongst the lowest of all the character class in this game)

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(**5. Long Arm**. _Weapon of choice_: spears. _Type_: Melee. _Strengths_: Capable of dealing high physical attacks to enemies, while at the same time possessing a higher magical defense compared to a Heavy Blade, making this class quite a versatile choice when dealing with either physical-type or magical-type enemies. This is the only class with the 'Pierce' skill inherent inside it even without the need of equipment customizing, making a Long Arm _the_ natural bane for armor-wearing enemies. Also capable of dealing strikes in a much more rapid succession than a Heavy Blade. _Weaknesses_: this class is effective mostly in one-on-one duels, and difficult to use against multiple or many enemies at once. Also, a Long Arm is restricted only of equipping light armor for defense purposes, making this class a less survivable class compared to the Heavy Blade in an intense battle situation)

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(**6. Flick Reaper**. _Weapon of choice_: scythes. _Type_: Melee. _Strengths_: This class is designed especially for multiple-foes combat situation, where the amount of enemies outnumbering the player or the player's party. Nearly all attack skills available for this class are area-effect skills, affecting multiple enemies at once on great range around the player. A Flick Reaper's normal attack typically encompasses a large area, capable of striking multiple enemies at one swoop. Moderate physical and magical defenses, this class is also able to equip heavy armor to ensure further survivability against enemy attacks. _Weaknesses_: the attack power of a Flick Reaper is—although higher than a Twin Blade—noticeably weaker than many of other melee-oriented classes such as Long Arms or Heavy Blades. Since nearly all skills available for this class are area-effect skills, this is not an efficient class to use in difficult one-to-one battle situations, such as when the player must face a game boss character. A Flick Reaper's attack speed is also the slowest of all melee-oriented classes, making the player an especially vulnerable victim of counter-attacks launched by the enemies)

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(**7. Wavemaster**. _Weapon of choice_: long rods. _Type_: Melee/Magic. _Strengths_: This is the only class available of which both melee/magical skills are available in one place, making a Wavemaster a great asset to have in many various battle situations. Capable of casting both offensive/healing magic, and also able to execute various melee skills, players can opt to either stay in the background and act as a support character or join the frenzy battle in up front, as this class provides adequate versatility to cover both options. _Weaknesses_: only low to medium melee/magical skills are available to this class, while many of the high-tier and strongest skills still remain exclusive to other classes, making this class an inadequate choice for players wishing to master the highest skills available in this game. This class may also prove to be inadequate when facing enemies where the highest level of skills may otherwise change the tide of battle. This is also one of the most expensive classes to maintain and upgrade effectively)

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(**8. Adept Rogue**. _Weapon of choice_: twin blades, broad-swords, scythes. _Type_: Melee. _Strengths_: Capable of wielding various weapons at the same time, and also—given enough time and effort—upgrading their skills into their maximum levels possible, this class is _potentially_ the strongest melee class available in this game. The most versatile class in this game, players using this class can adapt to various battle conditions, and change their tactics accordingly depending on what kind of situations may arises mid-battle. _Weaknesses_: Adept Rogue is _the_ hardest class to maintain and upgrade, and _the_ most costly too. It requires an extremely dedicated player willing to pour countless hours and efforts in order to unlock this class' full potential. This class also requires a longer time to level up due to restricted experience gain exclusive to this class only, and it is also take a considerably longer time for this class to upgrade its skill levels compared to any other melee classes. In short, this is a very difficult class to use effectively)

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(**9. Element Warrior—new class**. _Weapon of choice_: elemental knives. _Type_: Elemental Melee. _Strengths_: this is the only class able to 'fuse' elemental properties to their weapons _or_ other character weapons in his/her own party in order to maximize potential damage against enemies weak against elements. A player using Element Warrior class is able to switch the elemental properties on his/her weapons on the fly to further increase the advantages for the player, and since this class can imbue other party members' weapons with elemental properties, an Element Warrior is also an excellent support to have for other melee-oriented classes such as the Long Arms or the Heavy Blades. High-level Element Warrior is even capable of altering enemies' elemental properties, making this class also an excellent support for magic-oriented classes such as Shadow Warlocks or Wavemasters. _Weaknesses_: knives are sitting at the very bottom of melee-oriented weaponry in terms of attack power. This class is also the only melee class in this game restricted on using the weakest class of armor available in this game, which can result in an especially dangerous situation when the player must face high-leveled enemies with strong attacks. Some monsters also ignore elemental properties altogether, making an especially difficult situation for a player using this class when facing them)

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(**10. Steam Gunner**. _Weapon of choice_: guns. _Type_: Ranged Melee. _Strengths_: this is the only melee-class in this game tailor-suited as long-range attacks' specialist. This is a class suitable for players wishing to wreak havoc to the enemies, but without endangering themselves by jumping into the front lines where enemies may counter-attack. Possessing the longest attack range of all classes available in this game, the Steam Gunner class also the owner of the highest HIT stats on the game, making its attacks almost impossible to evade and/or to counter. _Weaknesses_: a Steam Gunner's attack speed is not so fast, and coupled with the fact that guns must be reloaded at certain intervals, a Steam Gunner is not the most effective class to choose should the player wishes to play solo in this game, since even the shortest delay can give the enemies a chance to shorten their distance to the player. Steam Gunner possesses no close-ranged skills whatsoever, so a close-ranged battle situation is a very dangerous thing for a Steam Gunner to encounter)

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(**11. Dark Assassin—new class**. _Weapon of choice_: claws. _Type_: Melee/Support. _Strengths_: A player using a Dark Assassin class is not to be underestimated under any circumstances. This is the only melee class in this game able to attach various powerful debilitating negative status effects on his/her own weapon, effectively making a Dark Assassin a foe to be reckoned with. While other classes may also obtain a negative status effect equipped to their weapons by means of equipment customizations, the successful rate of the various status effects infliction to the enemy is exponentially amplified when the player is using this class, and moreover, their effects are also doubled, and the amount of time the statuses persist is tripled the normal time. One of the most useful status effects: 'Helpless', which render the enemies inability to cure _all_ negative status effects inflicted on them during the period of a battle, is exclusive to this class only, provided the player has reached the sufficient level required to obtain it. _Weaknesses_: while the effect and the period which the negative status effects lingers when they are inflicted by Dark Assassin are amplified, they are still incapable of bypassing status immunities, whether it is inherent in the monsters or by the means of equipments. Claws are also not an efficient weapon for attacking in their own right: they have a low attack power, low attack speed, and the strongest level claws are still very weak compared to, for example, the strongest twin blades weapon. Much of this class' skills also require a lot of SP to activate, and since a Dark Assassin is a melee class with typically low SP stats, this may also cause various serious problems for the player during a prolonged battle against strong enemies)

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(**12. Engineer—new class**. _Weapon of choice_: explosives, bombs, mines. _Type_: Special. _Strengths_: A player using this class is attacking by throwing a myriad of explosives and bombs to the enemies, which will explode immediately upon impact, damaging the enemies and everything around them, suitable against enemies with large numbers. Engineer is the only class in this game able to plant traps on the ground, which will explode upon detection. Damages done by an Engineer ignore both physical and magical defenses, so this class is especially useful to be used against foes with exceptional stats on those areas. _Weaknesses_: damages by explosives, bombs, and mines are not calculated through the player's stat, but by the stat of the weapons themselves. An engineer with a 999 attack stat will cause the same damage with an engineer with a 100 attack stat, provided they both use the same exact weapon. Thus, equipment customizations are the only possible way for an Engineer to increase his/her damage potential to the enemies. It is not advisable for those who do not wish to spend a great deal of time customizing their equipment to choose this class when playing this game)

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(**13. Hyper Dancer—new class**. _Weapon of choice_: none. _Type_: Magic/Support. _Strengths_: this is one of the most unique classes available in this game, and players seeking more challenge when playing this game are advised to choose this class. The ultimate party supporter, many of this game's strongest support or status enhancements spells are exclusive to this class only. Some examples of powerful supports spells exclusive to this class (attainable only on high levels): 'Invincible'—granting the party full invincibility for a period of time against _all_ attacks from the enemy, 'Power Enhancements'—granting a 200 percent boost for all stats for all party members for a period of time, and 'Break the Wall'—a spell which reduces both physical _and_ magical defenses of an enemy to zero for a period of time, regardless of how high the stats before the alteration. Other support or enhancement spells' effects are amplified when they're used by a Hyper Dancer, and the time period of which they're active also increased. _Weaknesses_: this is the _only_ class in this game of which the attack command is automatically disabled, since this class is _unable to equip any kinds of weapons whatsoever_. A player using this class is unable to attack by all means, so it is impossible even for a Level 100 Hyper Dancer to defeat a Level 1 monster if he/she is not accompanied by other party members during a battle)

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(Please choose your desired class wisely)

(**ATTENTION: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE YOUR CLASS ONCE YOU HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED OF SELECTING A CLASS FOR YOUR PC!**)

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(**CLASS: ADEPT ROGUE**. Are you sure?) (yes/no)

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(Please choose another class)

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(**CLASS: LONG ARM**. Are you sure?) (yes/no)

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(Would you like to edit your character's appearance?) (yes/no)

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(Please edit your character's appearance to your heart's content, using all the options available in your screen)

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(Character edit confirm?) (yes/no)

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(Character Name: **FREY**. Character Gender: **MALE**. Character Race: **HUMAN**. Character Class: **LONG ARM**)

(Confirm choices?) (yes/no)

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(Are you **absolutely** sure?) (yes/no)

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(You will now be taken to Delta Server: Mac Anu, a root town suitable for beginner players of this game. For further information about the game, please consult your manual for details and/or consult the game's official forum)

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(Welcome, to The World: Three!)

-_OmegaGames Corporation_-

**To Be Continued**


	2. Hack Two

-I am re-uploading the previous chapter—nothing changed in the story, just fixes and such. This site sometimes screws up my story's formatting real bad…

-I apologize for the… well, 'lack of action' on the previous chapter and this one. I need to set various things up first, before things in my story starting to get messy.

-My chapter posting schedule is _usually_ one chapter per week. It'll probably be longer for this one because I have a Legend of Zelda fan-fiction to write too.

Enjoy

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**.Hack//ReGather**

**-2-**

A fan-fiction based on the video game series .Hack

Written and directed by: Pizza Blade

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**-Arrival**

(Loading…)

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_A new set of screen was displayed_. _There's a picture of a sword and a gun crossing each other in front of a multiple silhouette of various character classes_. _There were three flashing words available on the bottom of the screen_.

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(This is the Sub-Menus of The World: Three, a place you will be directed into every time you start your game and immediately after you logging out from the game. Direct your pointer to the following options to view their description—**this message will not appear any longer in your subsequent visits to this screen**)

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(**LOG IN**—this will allow you jump in immediately to the marvelous adventure of The World: Three! This option will take you immediately to the last Root Town you visited, allowing you to prepare yourself for your next grand adventure!)

(**FORUM**—this is a place where you can discuss various things about the game with other players from all around The World. This is also the place to go when Players are wishing to contact the game's administrators. The Forum is divided into several sub-forums, each with their own specific purposes)

(**CHECK MESSAGE**—this is the place where you may check in-game private messages for your character. You can also send private messages to other players, provided that you have their Member Addresses.)

(**EXIT**—exit the program and return to your desktop.)

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-Phzzz-

(You have now arrived at the Root Town for beginners: Aqua Capital Mac Anu. This marks the beginning of your exciting journey! Please enjoy The World: Three!)

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"…Whoa……"

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That was the first word to come out from Frey's mouth when he first arrived at Mac Anu.

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…He was now standing at the center inside a huge room—or, 'hall', probably, was the more appropriate description. It would appear like he was inside of a huge cathedral or something. When he looked up, he could see that the ceiling of this huge hall was so high it felt like it could touch the skies. It evoked some feeling of grandeurs watching a ceiling that high—it was like you were staring at the heavens itself…

When Frey looked down, the floors were all seemingly made from the finest ceramics in the world—they all looked so beautiful when they reflected the warm, fuzzy sunlight streaming down from the windows……

…And speaking of windows, Frey has never seen windows as magnificent as the ones he witnessed right now. For one thing, those windows were _gigantic_—each and every one of them was colossus in size. Not just that, but those windows appeared like they were made from the finest material in the world—Frey couldn't quite explain it very well, but the way they let the sunlight in…… he never quite expected that he could ever be mesmerized just by the sight of _windows_—of all things—in his entire life time.

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The walls of the hall were no slouch either. Many parts of the walls of the hall were decorated by some of the most intricate and beautifully designed paintings Frey ever saw in his entire life…… well, not that he actually ever saw a _lot_ of paintings in his life, but nevertheless, it felt like even the most jaded and cynical person out there wouldn't be able to _not_ appreciate the beauty and magnificence of those paintings. The paintings depicted a lot of things—humans, birds…… even the more 'supernatural flavored' things such as gods, angels, and the like……

The programmer of this game went even further than that, though. They made the pictures _moving_ somewhat realistically too! Watching those pictures moving around doing their own things incited a very surreal and dreamlike feeling…… It was like watching a movie so enchanting you just couldn't afford to close your eyes even for a split second…

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After he finished admiring his surroundings, Frey took a while to examine his own character.

"…Pretty neat," he said to himself, observing the details of his character—since this was his first time trying this kind of thing, he felt kind of uneasy at first…, afraid that the result of his editing would turn out bad…… but in the end, it was pretty satisfactory.

It took him a few moments, however, to thinking in how amazing technology truly has advanced these days…… people used to play video games by assuming the characters' role through a controller and a television screen. Nowadays nearly all video games implementing virtual reality technology, and the age when you need to push buttons to see your character moving in a screen has long been deemed obsolete. In this day and age, _you_ are the character that lives on the video game world yourself!

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And right now, he was in the middle of a frighteningly realistic virtual world in the game, The World. This one in particular was an extremely popular game. Truthfully, Frey was never really a person to play video games—he'd rather play sports such as football or basketball. However, most, if not _all_, of his friends at school always talked about The World this, The World that……… so even though he didn't really like video games _that_ much, he felt the need of at the very least knew what The World looked like, so that he's not going out of the loop too much (besides, he got the installation disc free as a gift from one of his friends, so why not?)

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……And now, since he's already inside the game itself, he could sort of understand how this game managed to gain its reputation, and how many people were willing to devote so many time on their lives to take part on it. Frey just started the game for about a minute or so and he already getting amazed by many things!

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"What should I do right now…?" Frey mumbled to himself as he watched many characters—some of which sported a rather 'exhilarating' sense of design—all around him.

It managed to instill a rather pleasurable feeling in Frey when all he do was to simply watching those characters doing stuffs all around him. Those characters do seemed very realistic, and alive—like he was seeing real life humans doing real life things. Although it _still_ kind of weird seeing the fact that there's a player sitting behind every single characters out there, and there's a very true chance that their online avatar appearances betrayed their real-life counterparts.

……That big guy over there could have been very tiny in real-life. That very attractive female over there could have been very ugly in the real-life…… or worse, a very ugly _big guy_ in real-life……

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……In any case, he should be careful when dealing with people in an online game like this.

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"Hey, watch it you _noob_!"

All of the sudden a Steam Gunner—followed by a Heavy Blade and a Wavemaster—shoved Frey out of the way, and quickly vanished after they're using the device behind Frey (not without the Wavemaster threw a very smug and condescending look at Frey first, though……)

Frey was surprised at the beginning, but then he suddenly realized just now that all he's doing since he started this game so far was just standing in front of that device, looking like an idiot.

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"Uh right… sorry…" Frey muttered to an already gone party of three.

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He looked around his surroundings again.

His previous question hasn't been answered yet.

…What should he do next?

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…Come to think of it, he really didn't know _anything_ about this game, except how to install it to his computer. He's never really a person that would look seriously at manuals for all things, and this game was no exception.

How to check his status? How to change his equipment? How to form a party? Heck, what's the weird-looking device behind him and how to use it? What's the name of the device?

And…

… and…

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Frey shook his head while sighing exasperatedly—_now_ he's feeling kind of stupid. One of these days he should make the act of reading instruction manuals a frequent habit to do every time he try something new…

He gazed at a big door at the center north part of the room—that should be the exit of this room…

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…Perhaps it would be better for him to stroll around this place for a moment……

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-**Request**

"This is truly amazing…" Frey mumbled to himself, his expression showed a mixture of disbelief, amazement, and wonder.

No wonder almost everywhere he went in school people always seemed so excited talking about this game—like this game was the only thing in life that matters to them or something. Although he didn't really personally appreciate that kind of attitude, he at the very least could understand them better now that he experiencing the game himself.

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He's now just strolling around the town of Mac Anu, and his eyes just couldn't help but to marvel at all the things surrounding him. The town was extremely—to the point that it's really kind of _eerie_—realistic, with buildings, houses, cables, roads, electric lamps, trash cans…… practically everything someone should expect to see available in a real-life town.

Not just that—the atmosphere was exceptionally life-like too. People waltzing around here and there… people buzzing…… people talking to each other… people hurrying to one place or another…… Shops, stores, with people bargaining deals in them…

There're even cars and bikes running on the roads, complete with their extraordinary details—even to the smallest things like the smoke they exhausted or the sound of their machines roaring (Frey even saw some characters riding those vehicles—was that possible in this game?)

The wonders did not end there, though. When Frey looked up, the illusion that there's a real sky up there was so strong that for a moment he forgot that he's inside a video game, that the sky above him right now wasn't real at all. The sun, the clouds…, even the birds…… and how they moved……

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Frey just kept walking, and walking, and walking, and before he knew it, he arrived at the front of a bridge, built atop a river separating two separate parts of the town.

"…Huh…" he muttered.

He then strolled to the bridge, and looked down.

…Even the water looked outstandingly realistic. The way they moved, the sound they make, how they reflected the light cast by the sun…

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…It's tremendously amazing that all of those things weren't real—Frey even felt the need to take a deep breath and exhale it slowly… just to give his mind time to digest all that he saw.

Really, they were all just make-believe—merely a computer rendition of the real ones in real life. Just the same—the fact that the town and the river were basically just a compilation of 1s and 0s made them even more astonishing, given how outlandishly realistic-looking those things were.

…

……

Now he felt kind of excited—he knew this game's genre was basically a mix between RPG, action, and adventure. The word 'adventure' wouldn't mean much if the only place the players could play was in a town like this—no matter how amazing it was. So, there should be a lot of other new places, locales, locations, and stuffs like that programmed to this game…… new things that should do wonder to his entirely newbie World self…

…

……

…And yet, he didn't even know the way to do the basic stuffs……

Frey smacked his own head lightly.

He felt kind of mad to himself that he didn't know anything while he was kind of itching to just start the experience already.

…

He sighed.

…Should he just log out for now to read the instruction manual for this game? One of the reasons why he didn't read the manual was simply because it's kind of huge—huge enough to quickly dampen his already not-so-interested attitude to read it carefully.

But apparently he's got no other choice.

…

Sighing exasperatedly once more, Frey decided that he should just log out and spend a quality time with the instruction manual first before coming back to this game—learning the basic rules and technicalities and what have you before logging back in.

……

When he was about to log out, however, he all of the sudden heard a conversation happening not too far from where he stood. At first he dismissed it as just another usual banter between people that he shouldn't pay any attention to, but then _something_ about it caught his interest somewhat. He couldn't really explain the compelling feeling, but _something_, _somehow_ pushed him to lend his ear to the conversation.

…

…….

...He postponed his logging out from the game, and instead he got off from the bridge, trying to look for the source of the voices.

…

……It would appear that the voices coming from a small patch or pathway on the riverbank, not too far from his original standing location.

It didn't take Frey a lot of time to locate the source of the conversation.

…

……

It was a group of three people.

"A… Twin Blade, an Engineer, and a…" Frey mumbled as he tried to remember the pictures of the characters he saw when the game directed him to choose a class before, "…Um…, an Adept Rogue? Yeah, that's it…"

Of those three, only the Adept Rogue was a female character, and also, the only one amongst them who appeared to be very flustered because of something.

……

…And is that a _pink _armor?

…

……

Frey didn't approach them too near—close enough so that he could hear what they're saying but at the same time far enough so that they wouldn't be suspicious of him or something. Thankfully, there're quite a number of people at this time strolling on the same pathway (although only those three were conversing), so Frey moving closer to them wouldn't be overly conspicuous.

"Thank goodness this thing is equipped with a sound amplifying feature…" Frey mumbled to himself as his real world finger touched a button on his fancy Virtual Reality Displayer SCREENER V.02. He touched it repeatedly, and with each touch the voices from the conversation gradually became louder and louder. Frey continued to touch the button until he was satisfied with the results.

…

He knew that he was practically eavesdropping on other people's conversation without permission, and he also knew that it wasn't what people would exactly call a positive way of spending a free time.

…But at the same time he felt like—he didn't know, but he just _felt_ like he _must_ hear this conversation, for reasons he couldn't really explain……

……

"…S…so…" the Adept Rogue said nervously, "……H…how about it, then?"

The Twin Blade exchanged looks with the Engineer.

"...You're an Adept Rogue, eh?" he said to the Adept Rogue lazily, "What's your name again, sorry?"

"I… It's Arianna, Sir!" the Adept Rogue answered hastily.

The Engineer laughed.

"Well _that_'s a pretty cute name for an Adept Rogue!" he said, "And look at your character edit! I've never actually seen anyone ever chosen the color _pink_, of all color, as the color for their armor! Well, you're a girl, right? Girls are so strange sometimes…"

"I…I am sorry, Sir!" Arianna said nervously, bowing her head numerous times, "I…it's just that, I just _love_ the color pink, a…and…"

"It doesn't matter," the Twin Blade responded matter-of-factly, "What's your level?"

"Um…" Arianna mumbled, looking at the ground, "…Th…three…"

The Engineer burst out laughing, while the Twin Blade seemed amused.

"…And do you have any idea who we are?" the Twin Blade continued his questioning.

Arianna nodded fervently.

"O…of course I know the two of you!" Arianna exclaimed immediately, "Y…you are the legendary Twin Blade, Sir FalconEye, and y…you are his partner, the famous Engineer, Sir M…Muroki! The two of you are known through-out the World as the 'Blazing Duo'! You two are the leader o…of one of the biggest Guild in this game, the Empire!"

"Hey!" Muroki crossed his arms, his face looked annoyed, "How come you are _legendary_, while I am _just_ famous?"

FalconEye ignored Muroki's protest. Instead, he continued to talk to Arianna—but his tone becoming somewhat unpleasant.

"That's right, we are the Blazing Duo," he said, "And even though you know that we are the Blazing Duo, you as a level one Adept Rogue still have the guts trying to enter our Guild, the Empire? Are you aware what kind of qualifications a player must have before he or she even _considered_ to become a member of our Guild?"

Arianna seemed really uncomfortable right now.

"…Y…yes, yes… o… of course I am aware of that, Sir, b…but…" she stuttered before she was cut short by FalconEye,

"And you expect _us_ to just accept you, a level three inexperienced Adept Rogue to join our Guild, just… like… this?" he snapped his fingers, "Why don't you join _other_ Guilds available throughout this game? Many of them would accept a newbie like you to join their ranks! Hell, there're even Guilds so desperate on getting new members they pretty much would do _anything_ to make people join. Go to them!"

…

Arianna was fidgeting nervously.

"W…well…" she said, "I have tried to do that… I have tried to enter all the Guilds out there in The World except the Empire…… a…and, they all rejected me, because they said I am not the person they're looking for… o…or I failed all the tests they gave me, a…and…"

"You should level up a bit more before you take those tests," Muroki interjected, "Level up high enough, and those tests should be a breeze. Go invite your friends to a party or something and level up in this town's server. That should take care of your problems."

"Well…" Arianna was fidgeting even more, "…I… I've got nobody's member addresses on my list, to be perfectly honest… So it's kind of hard to level up…"

The look on both FalconEye and Muroki was priceless.

…

"...You don't have _any_ member addresses?" Muroki said, his body lunging forward to Arianna, "How long have you played the game? It should have been a while already for you to know about us and our Guild, and to raise your level to three, right?"

"…Um…" she mumbled, "For about two weeks or so…"

"You have played for _two whole weeks_ and yet you don't have a single Member Address on your list?" Muroki said in disbelief, "What are you, socially challenged or something?"

"W…well…" Arianna looked depressed, "I _did_ have a couple of Member Addresses. I've been venturing to a couple of areas with some other people before…… B…but, you see, Sirs—I am a very clumsy person, a…and to be perfectly honest, not that all reliable……"

Her face reddened as she said this,

"…And many times I screwed up when my party members needed me the most… I used the wrong moves in battle…, I forgot to carry important items…, I got scared easily seeing big, terrible monsters……, I…"

"So basically, you suck," Muroki stated matter-of-factly.

Arianna nodded—her face looked miserable.

"…Yes…" she said, "…A…and, all of those people whom I got Member Addresses from suddenly never reply to my invitation anymore… saying they're always busy and stuff…… A…and, about five days ago, when I checked my Member Addresses list, I… well, I found them empty all of the sudden. It looked like all the people I've been adventuring together with have withdrawn their Member Addresses from my character, a…and…"

"Well, no wonder," Muroki said as he once again crossed his arms, "Not only you _suck_, you also—for whatever reason _beyond_ me—chose _pink_… of _all the color edit available _in The World, you picked _pink_ as your character's main color. Even the toughest looking characters out there would look silly battling in a party together with someone wearing a _pink_ armor."

Arianna did not say anything as a respond to that, although her face was very flushed.

…

……

FalconEye seemed to be thinking about something.

"…So the only Guild you haven't tried yet is the Empire, and since you've spotted us traveling merrily in Mac Anu—an activity we very rarely do unless we _absolutely_ need to, I assure you—you've decided to gather up your courage and come us directly to let you join in our Guild?"

Arianna was bowing repeatedly again.

"I…I know it may sound… sound silly, but, _please _let me join your Guild, Sirs!" she said desperately, "I… I will do my very best to live up to your expectations! Y…your Guild is filled with many of the best players in The World, a…and if you let me join you I will then be able to learn so many things from them, so that I can be a better player on this game, a…and people will start to letting me join their party, o…or people will come when I invite them, a…and……"

She shot off all of those sentences without drawing a single breath. She would continue doing that, if only FalconEye didn't immediately raise his right hand, signaling her to stop.

"Okay, stop," he said, and Arianna immediately stopped, "…Okay, I understand. Let me tell you two things ……, sorry, what's your name again?"

"Arianna, Sir!" Arianna responded hastily.

"Right…, right…, Arianna," FalconEye nodded his head lightly, "…First of all: your decision to pick Adept Rogue as your character's class is not wise—it may sound powerful, and indeed, Adept Rogue _is_ a powerful class—but it takes a very dedicated and skilled player to make optimum use of its full potential. As you stated yourself, you are not a good player—I suggest you delete this character of yours, and reenter the game as a different class. Maybe a Heavy Blade, or a Steam Gunner—classes which considerably easier to manage compared to an Adept Rogue."

Arianna seemed shocked by that statement.

…

"…D…delete this character?" she said in shock.

"You are currently at level three, so it shouldn't be a big loss," Muroki added to the conversation, "I've known guys who deleted their characters when they already reached level 50 or something—turned out they didn't like their character after spending so much time playing with it. Believe me; the tears trailing from their eyes were _not_ pretty."

FalconEye nodded in agreement.

"That's true," he said, "With another class, it should be easier for you to play this game…… but anyway, it's your call. Whether you do it or not is entirely up to you. Now, moving on to the second thing I wanted to tell you: all right, I promise I will consider you joining in our Guild…"

Both Arianna and Muroki was quick to stare at him in utter disbelief,

"But only _if_!" FalconEye raised his hand once again before both of them could even say a word, "…Only if you manage to pass my test first."

Arianna looked terribly excited by this.

"…A… a test?" she said, her face glowing, "O…of course, Sir! I promise I will do my best to meet with your expectations! I… I will not fail you!"

"That's nice," FalconEye seemed unfazed by Arianna's sudden spurt of enthusiasm, "…Well, here's the test: I want you to find me a very rare weapon for a Twin Blade called 'Wave Blades'…"

Muroki suddenly appeared like he was kind of stunned because of something—but he didn't say anything at all.

"It's not what you might call a very powerful equipment—but it _is_ one of a kind, and I want it. It is believed that this weapon is attainable from one of the areas on this town's server. Get me that weapon, and I will consider you joining in our Guild. How's that?"

"…A… a very rare weapon?" Arianna said—the glow on her face was quickly dwindling, "U…um… All right… It's going to be…, difficult, to be sure………, but I'll try to do my best to find it for you, Sir FalconEye!"

"…Ask around in the Rumor section of the Forum," FalconEye added, "That's the first time I ever heard of that weapon. Surely… asking questions in the forum is not a difficult thing, even for you, to do, right?"

"O…okay…" Arianna nodded eagerly, "…I… I will ask around in the forum. Thank you for your information… a…and thank you for your consideration in this matter, Sir FalconEye… I really appreciate it, I really do!"

"Well, okay then," FalconEye nodded his head, "So, me and my friend here are going to leave now. Like I said before, we very rarely ever go to this town if we don't have any very important matters to take care of here. So, we will leave you right now, okay, Arianna?"

"S…sure!" Arianna nodded her head, "Sorry for taking up your time, Sir FalconEye… a…and Sir Muroki also! But… if…… _when_ I do manage to find the item, how can I let you know?"

"Just go to our Headquarters' representative offices in this Root Town," FalconEye answered, "You know the place, right? Tell one of my guys there that I sent you to find that weapon, and they will immediately inform me of your success. Well, we have to go now. Let's go, Muroki."

Arianna hastily bowed again repeatedly to those two, but FalconEye and Muroki already turned their backs and strolling away from her.

…

Those two were now walking to Frey's direction.

…

"…Hey, about that Wave Blades…" Muroki said to FalconEye, "…Isn't that…?"

"Yeah," FalconEye nodded, "Don't worry about it. She won't make it. I never had the intention of letting a total beginner like her joining our Guild, anyway."

Muroki chuckled.

"…This is why I was against us walking around merrily in a beginner's Root Town like this," he said, "Too many distractions, and time we spend here is better off to use for us to explore all the sides and corners of The World."

"Can't help it," FalconEye said, his eyes turned grim, "_They_ wanted us to meet them here. I don't know the reason, and I hate to say this… but they have in their possession a much bigger bargaining chip than us."

"…I suppose you are right," Muroki nodded quietly.

…

And they just walked past Frey, without realizing that Frey paid attention to all the words they said.

Although obviously, he didn't say anything to them, since he thought it would be weird if he spoke out to them. He just let them walked pass him, and stared at them from a distance until they vanished from his view.

…

Frey turned his head back to Arianna.

"…Hmm…, asking around in the forum…" she muttered, "…W…Well, I suppose there's no other way. I mean, they're already nice enough to give me the chance to join them…… I just can't afford to screw up…"

…

Her character all of the sudden was enveloped in a bright light, and after a brief flash, she's gone just like that.

Frey, who at first was surprised to see her… just disappeared like that, was quick to realize that all she did was just logging out from the game. She did say that she wanted to visit the forum to ask questions.

…

…Frey contemplated his options right now.

He _could_ ignore what he just heard and saw before, and then continuing his exploration of the town. Now that he gave it a thought, he's sure that there's at least someone in this game nice enough to explain him the basic functions of this game so that he didn't have to log out and read the instruction manual (he _hated_ thick books).

…_Or_ he could just log out, exited the program, and read the instruction manual like he was planning to do before he eavesdrop the conversation before.

…

……

…_Or_……

…

Frey stood silent for a while.

…

_"…Hey, about that Wave Blades…" Muroki said to FalconEye, "…Isn't that…?"_

_"Yeah," FalconEye nodded, "Don't worry about it. She won't make it. I never had the intention of letting a total beginner like her joining our Guild, anyway."_

…

……

Well…

…

…Um…

…

Damn it,

…How to log out, again?

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

-**Rumor**

After some tinkering with the controls (Frey was not in the mood of stopping someone in their tracks and asking newbie questions) and traversing through several set of screens that he wasn't entirely sure their purposes were, Frey has finally managed to log out from Mac Anu and made a way back to The World's Sub-Menus.

He quickly diverted his pointer to the FORUM section, and,

-Click-

…

……

(Loading……)

…

(Welcome to the FORUM)

(Please select your destination below and REMEMBER: **THIS FORUM IS BEING WATCHED BY MODS AND IMPROPER CONDUCT IN THIS PLACE MAY RESULT TO VARIOUS ADMINISTRATIVE PUNISHMENTS SUCH AS FORUM BANNING OR EVEN CHARACTER DELETION**)

…

There're various sub-forums available from the screen, from -General Topics-, -Administrators Central-, -Tutorial for Beginners- ("Hey, this seems interesting! At least it beats out reading a thick manual…"), -Rumors-, etc, etc.

Tutorial for Beginners seemed tempting, but Frey directed his pointer to the Rumors forum instead.

…

-Click-

…

(Loading……)

…

Hmm…

For a game with such meticulously created worlds inside it, its forum sure did look very casual and not so special. In fact, it looked just about the same with every generic internet forum Frey has visited in his surfing days.

…Well, it wasn't such an important thing anyways…

…

……

There sure were a lot of topics inside the -Rumors- message board right now, and Frey didn't even understand most of the terms the players used on their topic titles.

Well, it didn't matter though, because the thing that he's looking for was right at page one in the front.

…It was a still freshly created topic called: "Wave Blades: Please Help!", and the topic creator was none other than Arianna herself. It seemed like various replies have been posted there.

Frey clicked on the topic.

…

……

(**From**: Arianna. **Message**: I heard that there's a very rare weapon for a Twin Blade class called 'Wave Blades' somewhere in Delta Server. Anyone has any information about this? Any help is appreciated, thank you very much.)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: If I knew the location of a very rare weapon, would I be posting it freely in a message board like this? The first thing I do is to get to that area first and snag that weapon for own collection first, so that I can rub in the faces of those looking for it, LOL)

…

(**From**: Typhoon. **Message**: Don't be such a jackass, Hurricane. The Mods won't let you get away easily with that kind of attitude, you know.)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: "_Don't be such a jackass, Hurricane_."—Geez, lighten up a little dude! It's just a joke! A joke! The mods won't be out to hunt me or whatever for just a joke, right?)

…

(**From**: Typhoon. **Message**: Well some people might be working very hard to find this very rare equipment the TC mentioned, and what you consider a joke might not be so funny for those people. So just behave yourself.)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: ……… : 3 Fine, fine, fine. I still think you need to loosen it up a little though, bro…)

…

(**From**: Jasper. **Message**: Hey, you two are getting off-topic, you know. The TC's is now all quiet and stuff, LOL. And what's with the names, you two? Typhoon and Hurricane? What, are you two working in Discovery Channel or something? LOL. Anyways, I am a Twin Blade, and I am definitely interested in this Wave Blade thing. Any useful information?)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: "_Anyway, what's with the names, you two?_"—naah, it's just a coincidence. Anyway, before Typhoon gets mad at me again shudder, to the TC: I apologize. Now, about the Wave Blades—yea, actually the information of its whereabouts is pretty known amongst the members of this board. I don't know the person responsible spreading the rumor here in the first place, though.)

…

(**From**: Typhoon. **Message**: Hurricane is correct. It is not a very strong piece of equipment, but there's supposedly a special property equipped in it that is exclusive only to that weapon, so it's getting kind of famous around here. However, TC, you need to know this—this weapon may or may not exist in the first place. After all, this is the **Rumor** board we're talking in.)

…

(**From**: Arianna. **Message**: …So it's an already pretty well known rumor? T…then, can you tell me more about it? Please? Thank you.)

…

(**From**: Lancester. **Message**: Hey, mind if I join in? This topic seems interesting.)

…

(**From**: Typhoon. **Message**: Well, the supposed location itself has been known to many veteran members of this board. It's in, **Delta Server**: **Forgotten Fated Battleground**. Like Hurricane just said, I have no idea who is the person that first spread the rumor about the Wave Blade, and its location.)

…

(**From**: Jasper. **Message**: Waaaaaaait a minute. If everybody has already known the Area Address, than shouldn't someone managed to snag that weapon already? Then why the rumor about it is still circulating around in the board?)

…

(**From**: Lancester. **Message**: I agree with Jasper. It doesn't make any sense.)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: Well, here's the thing. The spooooky part. The part that makes the existence of the weapon is still just a rumor. _No one has been able to enter the area_, like, _ever_. When the name of the area first surfaced, there're droves of players immediately went to go to that area to claim that equipment as their own. But so far, _no one yet has been able to enter the area_ _for some mysterious_, _unknown reason_. It's a bit scary, isn't it? Like an X-File case or something)

…

(**From**: Arianna. **Message**: …What? What do you mean by no one was able to enter the area?)

…

(**From**: Typhoon. **Message**: Well, it's just like what Hurricane said. No one has yet able to enter the area. Even I already tried it, out of curiosity. I could still see the description of the Area—it's a snowy field type area, level five, with treasure level seven—but when the I tried to enter the area, all I got was a message from the game's system saying this thing (sorry for the big letters): FORBIDDEN ENTRANCE. Repeated tries always resulted in the same thing, the same warning text like that.)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: Yeah, it happened to me too when I tried it. All I could do was looking at the Area's description—no further than that.)

…

(**From**: Jasper. **Message**: Well, maybe it's still under construction or something. Perhaps the programmers of this game are still fixing bugs or some problems in that area? Has anyone contacted the game administrators through the -Administrators Central- board about this thing?)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: One of the frequent visitors of this board—Raven Claw, if I am not mistaken—has done that, and he already posted the only reply he got from the administrators on his topic long time ago. IIRC, the answer he got from OmegaGames was pretty formal and typical 'we are currently looking into it' kind of thing. People still tried to enter it after that, but no one has managed to do it.)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: Sorry for the double-post, but here's the juicy part of this story. IIRC, it has been approximately three months since Raven Claw posted the answer he got from the game administrators in this board. And yet, for some weird reason, _the problem on that area is still there_! Heck, you can still even access the Area's description through the Chaos Gate in Mac Anu. You might think that a company as big as OmegaGames had a programmer or two in their army that could rectify a simple error on the program, but noooo…… More interestingly, though, when this game is still in Beta Testing (hey, you might not believe it, but _I_ was there during their first public Beta Testing. LOL, I know, I am a 'true' veteran of this game), usually they just deleted problematic, bug-filled Areas instead of trying to fix them. But **Delta Server**: **Forgotten Fated Battleground **is still here today…… it's just like the company wouldn't…… or _couldn't_…… do anything about it. How about it, pretty X-Files, huh?)

…

(**From**: Lancaster. **Message**: Damn that's a long post. Usually I don't read posts that consists more than two or three lines but… that post is an exception. It's pretty interesting, huh?)

…

(**From**: Moon Warrior. **Message**: Hey, sorry for suddenly joining this thread mid-way guys, but I have read all the posts from the top. I have to agree with Lancaster. This thing is very interesting. In your opinion, guys, why do you think the folks at OmegaGames haven't fixed the problem yet? Or what do you think caused the problem in the first place?)

…

(**From**: Jasper. **Message**: Perhaps a hacker broke into the system or something? Many hackers would love to mess around with an extremely popular online game like this, right? Or maybe a virus? As to why it hasn't been fixed yet, maybe the programmers at the OmegaGames themselves that made the area, just for the purpose of playing practical jokes with us? I am not surprised if they're laughing their asses off seeing the puzzled look on the players' faces when they tried to enter the Area…)

…

(**From**: Typhoon. **Message**: To Jasper—be careful about what you said. Although this is a Rumor board, spreading false information about hackers breaking into this game or viruses infiltrating the system may get you into trouble, you know. And besides, maybe the reason why the problem has not yet been fixed is just because they're still working on it. Fixing a problem on a game as huge as The World surely takes a lot more time than fixing a problem on a game in a cell phone, right?)

…

(**From**: Jasper. **Message**: Geez, Hurricane, don't scare me like that… Please mods don't kill me!)

…

(**From**: Lancaster. **Message**: Jasper is crying like a liiiittle scared kitten, LOL. Anyway, I think I might just try to enter the Area, just for a little fun. I am sort of curious about it…)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: ….Umm…, I wouldn't do that if I were you…)

…

(**From**: Moon Warrior. **Message**: And why's that? I want to try it too…)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: Because… cue in dramatic music, the story didn't just end there. Personally, I've tried to enter the area only one time, and _just_ one time. You want to know why? There's also been a rumor saying that players that tried to enter that area repeatedly although being continuingly rejected sometimes got something funky happened to their characters. Something funky, something funky…)

…

(**From**: Arianna. **Message**: …Um, can you please elaborate?)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: Well, I've heard rumors that a player lost his entire items and equipment when he kept trying to enter the Area, due to some sort of unexplained error. There's also a story about a level 100 Element Warrior suddenly reverting back to level 1 when he tried to enter the Area… Some got strange stuff plastered on their character model… some lost all their money…… some poor souls even got their characters erased permanently! You know; those kinds of funky things. Thank goodness it didn't happen to me, though…)

…

(**From**: Lancaster. **Message**: WHAT? For real? A level 100 players turning back to 1? And some people lost their characters entirely? O.O _For real_?)

…

(**From**: Typhoon. **Message**: It's just a rumor. Nothing happened to me.)

…

(**From**: Lancaster. **Message**: Well yeah, but where there's a smoke there's a fire. Sorry, LOL, but I am not taking any chances. Maybe you guys are just lucky nothing happened to both of you. I am a level 20 Long Arm, and some of the items and equipment I have I got it through difficult Areas and Trades. I am not willing to risk losing them just because I am curious… Yeah, I think I pass on this one—it's not like I can equip the weapon anyway, LOL)

…

(**From**: Moon Warrior. **Message**: Well, I am a Twin Blade, but I think I pass on this one too. Too scary, LOL. I think I'd just stick to legitimate, error-free Areas for now…)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: So, how about it, TC? Do you still have the guts to try it out?)

…

(**From**: Arianna. **Message**: ………I think I just try it nevertheless. I am just a level three Adept Rogue anyways… if something ever happen to me, it's not that big of a loss…)

…

(**From**: Hurricane. **Message**: Good point, LOL. Heh, anyway, good luck! And you by some magic tricks able to enter the Area and find that weapon, you make sure you tell us, all right? You can brag all the way you want!)

…

(**From**: Arianna. **Message**: I will… Thank you for the information. I will now lock this topic… Thanks again.)

…

(**This topic has been locked. No additional messages may be posted**)

…

……

"Hm… that _is_ interesting…" Frey mumbled to himself after he finished reading all the posts on the thread Arianna created, "…I suppose I should go back to town, then……"

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

-**Magic**

(Loading……)

…

……

-Phhzzzzt-

…

Frey has entered Mac Anu again.

And just as he suspected, Arianna was standing not too far from the Chaos Gate (he now know the name of that strange device, without looking at the Manual, yey!), looking at it dubiously.

Her stare was so intense—it's like she didn't pay any attention at all to her surroundings.

…

……

Frey strolled casually to her.

At first, she didn't realize someone was approaching her—her eyes were so focused at the Chaos Gate it's almost scary.

…

He moved carefully to her behind, and gently tapped her left shoulder.

…

……She was so shocked by Frey's tap she literally jumped a little.

She hastily turned to face Frey.

…

"…Y…yes?" she said with a flustered face.

Frey smiled.

"I am sorry to disturb you, but are you the player with the name Arianna?"

"…Yes…" she answered with a surprised look on her face, "…Yes, I am Arianna… How do you know my name… I don't seem to know you…?"

"Oh, I apologize," Frey answered politely, "It's just that, I saw that topic on the Forum about the Wave Blade? That topic you created? It pinched my interest, so I have decided to check it out. It seems very interesting, to say the least…"

Arianna was looking at Frey suspiciously.

…

"A…and how do you know that the Arianna that created that topic is an Adept Rogue…? How do you now it's me?" she said, with her eyes squinted to Frey's direction/

Frey looked amused.

"Um…" he said, trying his best to contain his chuckle from getting out, "You said it yourself in that thread before you left… That you are a level three Adept Rogue… And you're the only Adept Rogue around here after the Arianna in that thread said that she wanted to check it out… so… I figure…"

…

……

A split second later, Arianna's face was so red Frey could almost see smoke gushing out from her ears.

"A…aaah, yes, yes… t…that's correct," she said miserably, "I… I apologize, Sir, I… When I have my mind set on something, I easily forgot about things that I should easily be remembered… I… I am sorry…"

She bowed herself repeatedly in front of Frey, making him feeling a bit awkward.

…

"It's okay, it's okay," Frey said, "I forgot about things too, sometimes. By the way, my name is Frey."

Thankfully, Arianna thrn got the cue and stopped her bowing.

…

"…S…so!" she said—her face still looked kind of guilty, "Um…Frey, right? You're interested in that rumor too?"

"Yeah," Frey answered as he stared at the Chaos Gate, "I like mysterious stuff like that."

Unexpectedly for Frey, Arianna was chuckling.

"Well, I like mystery novels too…" she said, "…You know, novels such as Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie… Nowadays, they mostly sell e-books instead of paper books, but I personally like paper books better… It feels more personal when you're reading a story from papers instead from a screen… and it is less taxing to your eyes too… I have a collection of mystery books—paper books, of course—in my house, when my…"

…

Frey once again had that amused look on his face, while it only took seconds for Arianna to realizing what just happened,

…Her face looked flustered yet again, and she hastily bowed repeatedly in front of Frey _again_,

"…I… I am sorry, I am sorry!" she said hastily, "…I…it's one of my bad real-life habits brought into this game… I… I sometimes blabbering about things before I'm realizing it myself, and…"

"It's fine," this time Frey laughed a little—truly, he didn't expect to meet a person this interesting on his first day messing around in The World, "I have a lot of friends who also have that kind of habit. It's cool."

She stopped bowing, and her face looked mightily relieved.

…

Frey moved closer to the Chaos Gate, and Arianna followed suit.

"So," he said, "Have you tried to enter that mysterious Area?"

"…Y…yea…" she answered, "Four times. And just like Typhoon said in my thread, all I got when I tried to enter was just a text box saying forbidden entry. Thankfully, nothing happened to my character, though…"

…She looked down to the ground.

…

"…And I suppose this means my chance of getting into The Empire is gone too…" she said quietly, "…Well, maybe Sir FalconEye never wanted me to enter his Guild in the first place anyways…"

"Hey!" Frey said, snapping Arianna out from his sad reverie, "How do you form a party with other players?"

…

"…Huh?" she said, "…What? Forming a party?"

"Yeah," Frey said with his eyes still looking at the Chaos Gate, "I mean, in this game, when you go out adventuring, you usually go out with a party right? How many people are allowed in a party?"

"Three people…" Arianna muttered, "…Although you can always go solo—a..alone… if you want… W…wait a minute, you don't know how to form a party?"

Frey nodded.

"I just logged in The World for the first time _ever_ today, actually," Frey explained, "And I always _hated_ reading instruction manuals, or things like it. Therefore, I am pretty much blind about almost everything in this game……Heck, I didn't even know what _that_ thing was…" he pointed his finger at the Chaos Gate, "Before I read your thread and saw that thing mentioned in it…"

"…Then you should have gone to the Tutorial for Beginners board first… before you go to the Rumor board…" Arianna said—this time it was her turn to have that amused look on her face.

"…Well, like I said, I like mysteries, and Rumor board seems to be a perfect place to look for mysteries," Frey said the first thing that crossed his mind.

Arianna chuckled.

…

"…W…Well… It's pretty simple, actually," she said, "First, you open your character's menu by pressing -START- at your controller…"

"Like this?" the real-life Frey pressed start on his controller, and a menu immediately showed up in front of his eyes, "…Hey, do you see that?"

"A player's menu is visible to that player only…" Arianna said while laughing a little seeing Frey waving his hands around like an idiot, "That's why you got to see strange things when people just stand around in the street, seemingly doing nothing. Most probably they're just checking their character's menu… A..anyway, roll up your sub-menus, and you should see a 'Member Address' menu…"

"Yeah…" Frey muttered, "I click it?"

"Obviously…" she answered, "After that, you enter the character's name you wish to invite to your Member Addresses list, or if you want to request your name to be added to that character's Member Addresses list…… Once either way is approved and confirmed, you will have that person's Member Address and that person will have your Member Address."

"…That simple, huh?" Frey muttered again.

"…Yeah… that simple…" Arianna said, "And then you can then send requests to form a party to that person. If that person approves your request, he or she shall be added to your party, and… there you have it!"

…

She suddenly looked kind of down.

"…A…although…" she said quietly, "…Be careful not to make that person mad to you or something, because then that person may remove his or her Member Address from your list, and your list becomes empty again, and you can't have a party anymore……"

"Hm…" Frey muttered, "……Aaaand… click! _There_! I have sent my request to you."

…

"……W……what?" Arianna seemed surprised, "…Y…you sent a request to _me_?"

"Well, naturally," Frey said casually, "As per now, you really are the only player I know in this game. Like I said, I just logged in this game for the very first time today—heck, I am even still just a measly level one character! I need someone to teach me how to do a lot of things in this game, and you seem pretty knowledgeable…… So…why not?"

…

Arianna appeared kind of speechless.

"…W…Well…" she stammered, "…Thanks, I guess. Well, this is actually the first time I've been requested by other players… Um… wait a minute, here's your invite arrived. L…let me open up my character's menu……"

She opened up her character's menu, went to the Member Addresses sub-menu, and immediately approved Frey's invitation without even bothering to look it. While doing it, her face looked happy—like a child receiving an extremely delicious candy.

…

"…So, finished?" Frey said as he once again checked his Member Addresses sub-menu.

Arianna's name has been added to it.

"Excellent," he said, satisfied with the result, "Now, would you be so kind to invite me to your party?"

"W…what?" Arianna looked surprised, "I…Invite you? That means I am the leader of the party?"

"Well, duh," Frey nodded his head, "You are a level three character, and I am a level one character. It's only natural for the weaker character to follow a stronger character, yeah?"

…

For a moment, Arianna was gazing at Frey like he was some sort of alien or something.

But in the end she nodded her head.

"…Well…" she said, opening up her Party sub-menu and sending up a party invitation to Frey, "…J…just so you know, I am not a very good leader… In fact, I am not a very good player either…"

"It doesn't matter," Frey muttered, "…Wait…, what's that -cling- -cling- sound in my ears?"

Arianna giggled.

"That's the sound of my part invite arriving at your character's data. Just open up your party sub-menu and… well, approve my invite. You will then be automatically added as… um… my party member…"

"Oooo snazzy," Frey said, "You know, I am not really a video-game kind of person, but this is kind of fun…"

Frey opened up his party sub-menu and click 'Yes' when the game prompted him to approve Arianna's party invitation.

…

"…There…" he said, "Now I am in your party?"

"Yes…" Arianna replied.

"………" Frey was silent for a bit, "………Uh, it doesn't actually feel any different from before…"

"Well, yeah, for the most part," Arianna laughed a little, "…But now either you or me cannot teleport to other towns, or to an Area, without the others following closely behind. Also, when we actually go adventuring to an Area, our stats are boosted a little, and also we can execute team-based attacks and combos. The experience points given by the enemies increased too, and there're also various events on this game only available for party-based characters. Also the player character acting as a leader get various added party-based commands to use in the heat of battle, and………"

…

She stopped mid-way. Her face showed a rather silly expression.

"…See?" she said with her face reddening in shame, "…I am blabbering yet again…"

Frey just smiled.

…

He turned his eyes to the Chaos Gate.

…

"About that rumor…" he mumbled, "…Well, actually, like I said before, I am kind of curious about it. Care to explain how to use this Gate thing?"

"Just touch it with your character…" Arianna replied, "A menu should pop out, and from there it you choose Area words to determine the place you'll play in…… Um… just do it—it is a lot easier that it sounds…… "

"But now that I am one of…, well, your _only_ party member, shouldn't you, as the leader, have the privilege to choose which Area I should be playing in?"

Arianna shook her head.

"Not at all… a party member can do it too," she explained, "…And if you choose to teleport to an Area, then I will be forced to teleport to that Area together with you, regardless of where I am in town or what I am doing at that time. That's why people usually send a message to their party members when they want to teleport to someplace else… to make sure they're ready…"

"…But you are here, so I don't have to send you any messages, right?" Frey erected his right hand to touch the spinning device, and a new menu appeared before him.

"Um…" Arianna said, "One of the benefits of being in a party is that you can also view and use your party member's warp history… Just click on the Warp History sub menu and you will see the place I've been going to… or, the place I've been trying to go to…"

"Hmm……" as instructed, Frey clicked Warp History sub menu, "…This is pretty convenient… So I just have to choose one of these weird strings of words, and then we will be able to start adventuring?"

"Yes… pretty much…" Arianna said, "Just make sure you check the Area's description before venturing out… Going out to a level 20 Area when your character is only level 1 is just…, well, looking for trouble…"

…

……

"The name of the Area in that rumor… what was it?" Frey said as he scrolled through Arianna's Warp History.

"Um… Forgotten Fated Battleground," she replied, "…But it's impossible to enter that place, I suppose. Like I said before, I have tried it four-five times, but I am still unable to enter… Maybe that Area really is ridden with bugs or something…"

…

Frey directed his pointer to Forgotten Fated Battleground.

…

……

-Fzzzzzzzzt-

…-Fzzzzzzttt-

…

"What the…?" Frey said as his real-life self knocked his Virtual Viewer softly.

"W…what happened?" Arianna immediately moved closer to the Chaos Gate, "…I… Is something wrong?"

"I don't know—screen noises… The screen kind of distorted for a while… it's fine now, though……" Frey answered, "Maybe this Virtual Viewer of mine is acting up…… damn, and I just bought it recently too…"

"M…maybe we should just go to another Area…" Arianna looked worried—she probably remembered about all of those rumored 'fancy stuffs' she heard on the Forum, "…C…come on , Frey, I know an easy Area to play with… Come on… no one is able to enter that Area anyway—perhaps locked by the Administrators for some reason or something…"

…

"Just for a second…" Frey moved his pointer to the -Enter Area- button on the Area description menu, "…I just want to see that big Forbidden Entry text box thing…"

…

-Fzzzztttt-

…-Fzzzzzzzzttttt-

…

……

He clicked the -Enter Area- button.

A text box appeared. But it wasn't a big Forbidden Entry text box Frey was expecting. In fact, it's a confirmation box asking him whether he really wanted to go in to the Area or not.

…

"_That_'_s weird_…" he mumbled to himself.

…

……Feeling a little careless, and without consulting Arianna first, Frey just clicked the OK part on the confirmation box.

…

……

-Fzzzzzttt-

…-Fzzzzzzttttt-

…

-FLASH!-

The next thing he knew, his screen was enveloped by a bright light. All part of his screen turned white in a matter of micro-seconds.

It lasted only for a moment, though, because the screen turned back to normal almost immediately.

…

……

However, what he saw right now in front of his eyes was not the Chaos Gate at Mac Anu.

…It would appear like he's not even inside Mac Anu anymore. He stood on a beautiful white-colored snowy field, with majestic looking mountains standing proud on the view far away. There's a frozen lake nearby, and various trees of various sizes spread throughout here and there. Frey could also see various other weird-looking structures on the field.

His surroundings were very beautiful, and the fall of many soft snows from the skies further enhanced that dream-like sensation. Once again, Frey was amazed that all of these things that he observed with his eyes right now were nothing more than just a make-believe world generated by computer technology…

…

…But he didn't have time to marvel at the beauty all around him. Well, not right now, at the very least.

He turned around, and to his relief he found that Arianna was standing next to him.

…Although, she didn't appear very relieved herself.

…In fact, she appeared kind of horror-struck.

…

"Uhh… Arianna…" Frey muttered, "…Where are we, again?"

"………"

"Arianna?" Frey moved closer to her.

…

…She turned her face slowly to Frey, and still with that shocked expression intact on her face, she said slowly,

"…I…" she said, "…… I think we're inside the Forbidden Area……"

-**To Be Continued-**


	3. Hack Three

-Really sorry for the extremely late update. The thing is, there's a lot of real-life™ situation in my life needed to be sorted out for the last couple of weeks, and I simply just didn't have any time to spare for writing fan-fiction. _However_, I think you can expect regular updates from this point on. Once again, I apologize.

-Noticing mistakes at the previous chapter, yet again. Buggers…

-Thank you **PirateCaptainBo**, **BluRose**, **DavDavnobaka**, **FenMoon**, and **Aario **for posting their reviews. I also want to say thank you to anyone willing to click and read through my story. As always, reviews will always be appreciated.

-As for the suggestion put forth by **DavDavnobaka** in his (or her) review: why not? I am actually planning to at least have one character for each class available in this story to join my main characters' ensemble, and it would be great if my readers are willing to contribute their characters to me. Just send me your character's name, class, gender, race, physical description, personality, real-life information—anything you can think of. I will then try my best to incorporate them into my story (but please pay attention that I still also have the privilege to not accepting your character into my story… I hope this is acceptable.) You can send your contributions to me through Private Messaging or directly to my e-mail: activatethesmile _at_ yahoo _dot _com.

-As for **FenMoon**'s questions: all will be revealed in due time :)

Enjoy.

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**.Hack//ReGather**

**-3-**

A fan-fiction based on the video game series .Hack

Written and directed by: Pizza Blade

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**-Irregularity**

"…Y…yeah…" Arianna looked around the area nervously, "…I… I think we are inside the forbidden Area… We're inside the _Forgotten Fated Battleground_…"

"Really?" Frey exclaimed—unlike Arianna, he didn't appear to be _too_ worried, "You mean we're inside that Area where nobody has ever entered yet?"

"…Yes…" she nodded, "I… I am sure of it. This Area… it must be it… It fits the description of the Area… Snowy field…"

She looked around the Area again as she quickly opened her character's menu and equip her Twin Blade weapon.

…

"Hey, fancy!" Frey said when all of the sudden Arianna's hands were flashing bright, and the next thing he saw was she's holding a pair of great-looking short swords on each of her hands, "…Wait, I think I know how to do that, let me double check…"

He opened his own character's menu, and went to Equipment sub-menu.

…

"…Bingo," he claimed victoriously as he equip his own weapon. Like Arianna, his hands were flashing and soon immediately after that, he found himself holding a particularly wicked-looking spear on both of his hands.

"Cool," he said as he tried to swing the weapon around. He never held a weapon of any kind before in his entire real-life history, but nevertheless the spear was still real easy for him to move around. The programmer of the game sure did a wonderful job for this game…

"…This is a pretty good looking spear," Frey said admiringly, "I wonder… is it powerful?"

"It's just an entry-level spear," Arianna said without even looking at Frey's weapon, "It's called 'Beginner Spear', and you can buy it at the Weapon Shop for a very low price…"

"Well isn't _that_ a killjoy or what," Frey said as he whirled his spear 360 degrees effortlessly—now _that_ was something he most definitely wouldn't able to do in real life. Should he tried to do something like that ever, there's a very good chance that he would cut his hands off cleanly.

…

……

Arianna was gazing around the surroundings once more, before she finally fixed her eyes on Frey. She squint her eyes to him like she was scrutinizing him.

"…How did you that?" she asked.

"Did what?" Frey replied rather absent-mindedly as he was still pre-occupied with his spear.

"E…Entering the area!" Arianna exclaimed hastily, "…I mean, no one has managed to do that before! I have tried to enter this area myself for four times to no avail, a…and yet when you're the one accessing the menu, the Area let us both in all of the sudden!"

"…Well…" Frey mumbled. He stopped swinging and thrusting his spear around, "…I am not really sure myself. Like I said to you before, Arianna, this is my first day _ever_ in The World. And not just this version of The World too—I heard there're two versions of The World before, yeah? Well, call me a person living under a rock or anything, but I've never tried those games too… Really, this is truly my first experience at this kind of thing…"

Arianna stared at him suspiciously. Her expression wasn't that all trusting.

"…H…hey, what?" Frey said awkwardly, "You don't believe me? Like I said before, I am a total beginner in this game, and……"

Suddenly, he looked up, with his face seemed a bit surprised.

…

"Hm?" he mumbled, "…Why all of the sudden the background music changed?"

Arianna's expression was quick to becoming tense, and she immediately took a battle stance.

"This is the battle theme song! A… a monster is approaching!" she said, a rather panicky, "…P…Prepare yourself, Frey!"

"Whoa, a battle?" Frey exclaimed—and sure enough, not too long before there's a warning text 'BATTLE ON' streaking through his screen. He also immediately took a battle stance.

"This area is level five… S…so the enemy shouldn't be too dangerous…" Arianna informed him, "B…but nevertheless, we must still be careful! Most particularly because you are still at level one and me level three! And be careful that they might also attack us in groups!"

"Roger that!" Frey replied—he was kind of excited for the fact that he was about to enter his very first The World battle. What kind of moves he would like to perform? It was all very exciting!

…

……The battle music still played in the background. It's a kind of catchy song, actually. It was the kind of upbeat music that could really pump someone's spirit up—not to mention provoking an adrenaline rush.

…

……

Arianna looked to the right.

…Frey looked to the left.

…

The battle music was still playing…

……And playing……

…

……

"…H…huh?" Arianna muttered—she was still in her battle stance, but her face looked kind of funny, "…That's weird……"

"What's weird?" Frey asked, though for some reason he also felt kind of funny too.

"Um…"

…

She looked around for more, but once again there was absolutely nothing there except for her and Frey. No monsters, no nothing. Just an open field filled with beautifully rendered crystalline snow flakes falling from the skies.

…

"…Usually…" she explained to Frey, "…No, I mean, not usually, but _always_…… When the battle music played in our speakers, a monster, or a pack of monsters, would immediately appear… It usually took only a second or two… But…"

Frey cancelled his battle stance, though he was still gripping his spear tightly.

…

"Nothing's here…" he mumbled.

"Yeah… nothing's here…" Arianna said as he also cancelled her battle stance, "That's weird… And the battle music still played in the background too…"

…

Suddenly, a set of numbers were popping out from under their both legs, and it surprised Frey greatly.

"H…hey!" he said, "What's with this thing?"

"……It's the graphic effect for experience points… to level up…" Arianna said as she looked down on her feet, "…Awarded to players when they're victorious in battle, or after completing specific events in an Area…"

…

"…B…but…"

From the look on her eyes, the numbers popping out from under her character was definitely something she considered as 'not normal'.

…

……Because it suggested that she just received 1.203.478 experience points!

"…W…what the…?" she said, "…A… a million experience points?"

And when she looked at Frey, something even weirder happened

…The numbers popping out from under his legs suggested that he just received experience points of -1.000 exp!

"_What_?" she exclaimed in shock, "…_Minus_ one-thousand?"

"Well that's a shocker," Frey commented after he saw his share of numbers (he didn't see Arianna's number though), "I've never known a game rewarding its player with minus experience points…"

"That's because there're no such games, and I am sure The World is not too!" Arianna explained hastily as she opened her character's menu to check her status, "…A…and I've received _a million_ experience points! That's just impossible!"

…

……

When she opened her status sub-menu, to her relief she found that her character was still at level three, and nothing seemed to change—at least, there're no indications whatsoever that her character was changed.

…A million experience points received altogether at once would surely make her character jumped in levels from three to God only knew how much. An abnormality like that would surely alert the game administrators, and there's a big chance she would be considered as a cheater.

……She didn't want _that_ to happen, of course, because it's well known amongst the players of The World that the administrators would never act kindly towards any kind of cheaters.

…

"Shouldn't you check your character's status, just in case…?" Arianna said to Frey as she closed her character menu.

"Well, I guess I could, but I see no reason why I should," Frey replied casually, "…I _am_ still a level one character anyways—so even if I did receive minus experience points… that wouldn't change things much."

…

He looked up again, with his right index finger placed on his chin.

"…So, uh, why's the battle music still playing even though there's nothing around?" he muttered.

"... I have no idea," Arianna shook her head—her face looked mightily worried, "…We shouldn't have receive _any_ experience points too, since we didn't defeat _any_ monsters…… We didn't even _do_ anything! This place…… I don't like it… I feel strange here…"

…

…She looked around once more.

…

"Hm?" Frey noticed something, "…Hey, the battle music stopped…"

He was right—the game's battle theme suddenly faded away and stopped all by itself. In its place, a very nice and soothing jazz-like music kicked in. Frey guessed that this new music was the real normal background music for this type of Area.

The music itself was very considerate in its pace, and the way it harmoniously sang its tunes…… somehow, it was mysteriously able to provoke that relaxing and comforting feeling…… to any person fortunate enough listening to it.

…

…Not that it helped for Arianna though, because she was still busy looking worried to even pay attention to the background music. She didn't even seem care that the battle theme has been replaced.

Right now, all she seemed to care about was…

…

"I…I think we should Gate Out for now," she said with a very serious look on her face, "That's a term we use when we exit an Area and return to a Root Town…" she quickly explained before Frey could ask any questions, "A…and then we go back to the Forum, and tell the game administrators about this… About all of these weird things that's happening to this Area and to us…"

"……You sure?" Frey looked a little disappointed, though he showed no inclinations of refusing or debating her proposition, "You don't want to get that very rare weapon? From the looks of it, we are undoubtedly the very first people ever entered this Area, so the weapon should still be here for the taking…"

"Yeah, I am sure," Arianna nodded her head as she opened her character's menu, "…This place is… dangerous… and I think it would be best if we just go out from now. I just got a bad feeling about this Area…… A…anyway, the weapon may be very rare, but it's not like we couldn't find a better one out there…"

"…But what about the Guild you're trying to enter?" Frey asked, "Didn't you need that weapon to enter the…the… what was it called? The Empire?"

"It's all right," Arianna said as she scrolled through her menu, and clicking the Gate Out tab, "It's not like I am… expecting much from it anyway. A…and… there're a lot of great independent players…"

She was about to click the OK on the confirmation box, but she suddenly stopped mid-way.

…

She turned around to Frey, and once again cast her suspicious eyes on him.

"Wait a minute," she said, "……From where did you know that?"

"Know what?" Frey replied—only a split second after that, however, he immediately realized that he had let slip a mistake.

"…That I am trying to find the Wave Blades in order to enter the Empire?" she said interrogatingly, "…I never told you that, and I remember I didn't say anything about it on the Forum…"

Arianna gazed sternly at Frey, and he felt _really_ awkward now.

…He eavesdropped on her before, sure, but it's not like he did it because he wanted to make fun of her or something… or because he had any kind of ill-intention towards her. He did it because, well, he felt a sudden impulse... an impulse that just showed up out of nowhere and for seemingly no particular reason whatsoever. It was an impulse that compelled him to listen to the conversation between Arianna and those two from before.

…

…However, he knew that stating that he 'just somehow had a sudden impulse' wouldn't fly with her—heck, even _he_ himself felt like that reason was kind of stupid.

…

"…Well?" Arianna persisted, and Frey really didn't know what to say—he had another urgent impulse, though…, an impulse to knock himself in the head for being so stupid and careless.

Arianna clicked on the OK tab on the Gate Out confirmation box, though her eyes were still fixated on Frey.

…

"…Let's just Gate Out first for now," she finally said, though obviously from the look on her face she wasn't willing to let the matter to just pass anytime soon.

…

-FLASH!-

Frey's screen once again flashed brightly—just like before when he first arrived at this snowy field from Mac Anu. The flash didn't last long too this time, and Frey felt kind of miserable because he knew that once he return to Mac Anu, he would need to explain himself to Arianna…

…

……

-Fzzztt-

…-Fzzzzttt-…

…

…The bright light has gone, and Frey screen returned to normal.

…

……

…Only thing was, what he saw on the screen right now was not the hall on Mac Anu in front of the Chaos Gate.

…

"Uh…" Frey muttered slowly, "…Arianna, why are we still… uh, in the Area?"

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

It took Frey only one quick look to know that this sort of thing has never happened before to Arianna. Her expression clearly showed that her shock was most definitely greater than his.

It's true—instead of returning back to the safety of Mac Anu, as Frey clearly thought was the intention of gating out—they were still standing inside the same Area, apparently at the very same spot.

…

"…W…what the…" Arianna mumbled nervously.

"Shouldn't we return to the town right now?" Frey asked her while he's looking around.

"…We _should_ be!" she said hurriedly, her face looked very disturbed, "We should have been warped back to Mac Anu!"

She hastily opened her character's menu again, and quickly clicked the Gate Out tab once more.

Just like before, she clicked OK when the confirmation box appeared, and once again, both hers and Frey's character were enveloped by a flash of light.

…

……

…And once all of that already happened, they found themselves—to Arianna's horror—_still_ standing on the same spot inside the Area nevertheless. It was obvious then that her attempt of Gating Out was a failure.

…

……

"…W…what's going on in here?" Arianna looked terribly worried, "…W…why we can't Gate Out from this Area?"

"Maybe I should try it?" Frey proposed—he felt kind of bad looking at Arianna worrying like that, but he also at the same time felt kind of relieved because her worries took the matter of his eavesdropping off her mind, even if it only for a short while, "…You know, the game let us in to this Area only when I tried to access it—perhaps it may only let us out if I am the one trying to Gate Out?"

Arianna shook her head.

"N…no…" she muttered, "The only player in the party allowed accessing the Gate Out menu in an Area is the player acting as the leader…… S…should, for example, the leader is defeated in a battle and the rest of the party members have no means of reviving him… or h…her…… then the only possible way of getting out without having a game over from a particular Area is to accomplish the Mission given on that Area…"

"Mission?" Frey asked.

Arianna nodded.

…

"T…try pressing -SELECT- button on your controller…" she said, "You should see the map of the Area… if y…you look on the bottom of your screen, you should see the Mission in this Area…"

"…Hmm…" Frey did as he was told and pressed the -Select- button.

A map of some sort showed up on his screen. It was quite a detailed map, showing both him and Arianna's position, along with many objects such as trees, mountains, and various structures all viewed from satellite-like position. The map marked many places on the map with a '!' sign, and interestingly, one of the '!' marked location was the location where him and Arianna stood right now.

There's also one particularly attention-grabbing sign on the map—it was a mark of a human skull with flashing eyes. Frey could only wonder what that sign means……

…

"The Mission is on the bottom of the screen, yeah?" he said, reading the scrolling writings on the bottom of his screen, "…It says……… _Enter the Dungeon and take the treasure from the Gott Statue _…… What does that mean?"

"It means what it says…" Arianna muttered, "…I knew it already, though—most Missions on a Field-type Area like this are to take the treasure from the statue…"

"…And this Dungeon?" Frey asked, "How can we find it?"

"…Y…you saw a skull mark on the map, right?" she answered, "It marked the location of the entrance to the Dungeon… The Dungeon is, to be precise, the most dangerous place in an Area… In the deepest part of the Dungeon, there's a treasure box holding rare and valuable item in front of the Gott Statue—once we obtain it, the game will scan our characters and then it will allow even a party without a leader to Gate Out from an Area…"

…

……

"Well then!" Frey clapped his hands, "I think by now it should be obvious what we should do next, right?"

"…W…what?" Arianna looked to him.

"Well…, what else, I mean really?" Frey said, "We should head to the Dungeon and take that treasure from that whatever statue! After that, we _should_ be able to return to the town once we completed the Mission, yeah?"

…

……For a moment or two, Arianna was staring silently at Frey.

Perhaps she was wandering how could he still be calm at a time like this—and not just the usual sort of calm…… he even looked kind of playful. He looked excited, like a young boy given a brand new toy he couldn't wait to experiment with.

She thought that a level one inexperienced player when thrown at a weird situation like this _should_ at the very least be scared a little, right?

…But he didn't look scared.

…

Well… even if he did, he surely did a wonderful job at hiding it… Maybe the fact that this was really his first World experience ever helped his nerve too—like, his curiosity over things defeating his fear… or something like that…

…

……

"What?" Frey said because Arianna was scrutinizing at him—uh, oh…, will she start 'that question' again?

"…N…no, nothing," she replied, "……Well, I guess you're right. Let us head to the Dungeon for now…… J…just be careful, alright? We don't know what kind of other strange things may happen on Area like this……"

"Or course," Frey nodded—he looked glad that Arianna did not show any inclinations to discuss the matter of his eavesdropping, at least _not yet_, "…And you know, while we're at it, you can teach me a lot of stuff about this game to me. Now _that_ what's I call killing two birds with one stone!"

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

-**Appear**

Frey learned quite a few things from Arianna when they traveled from their starting position to the supposed location of the Area Dungeon's entrance.

…But he still couldn't help but to know that when she explained things to him, her mind didn't really there…… Like it's wandering someplace far away……

…

"…So that's how it's done?" Frey said after Arianna explained to him the nuances of the battle system for the game, "…Well, I kind of expect it to be kind of sophisticated, for a game this big. But it turns out its kind of simple, actually…"

"…Y… yeah…" Arianna answered absent-mindedly as she's looking around the Area, like she was expecting something might jump out on them at any time.

"Pretty cool, actually," Frey replied.

"…I guess…" Arianna just nodded quietly.

…

……

"…What are you worrying about, really?" Frey said as he once again checking his map to make sure they're walking to the right direction.

"Um…" she muttered with her head still swiveling, "…T…this is very, very strange… I mean, we've been walking for quite some time through this Area, a…and yet we still haven't found any monsters _anywhere_ in the Field……"

"That's not normal, isn't it?" Frey asked, though he wasn't really asking as he already knew the answer to it. He closed his map when the confirmation has been made—it wouldn't be too long now before they arrived at the Dungeon's entrance.

"Of course _not_!" Arianna said, "That's why I said it's strange, okay? Usually there would be tons of monsters lurking around in the Field! It's the game's method to help us leveling up a bit before we tackle the difficult portion of the Dungeon! B…but this place…"

…

"…Yeah…" Frey mumbled as he too, glanced around, "For an action adventure game, I guess things are real quiet around here…"

Aside from trees and various odd-looking structures that Arianna described as 'mere decorations', Frey didn't see anything else whatsoever. The view of everything covered in snow was spectacular, but he would have preferred it if he could engage in some sort of…

…Well, an exciting action, perhaps?

…

He sighed.

"…But anyway," he continued, "You shouldn't worry needlessly like that. Nothing's going to really happen to us, right? I mean, it's just a video game anyway…… If worst comes to worst, we could just forcefully turn down our gaming devices in real-life, right? Forced shut off. _That_ should take us out from this game, and then we could just log back in…"

"……" Arianna didn't say anything.

"Or we can deliberately get a Game Over or something," Frey added, "Then we can just load our last save, which is in the Root Town, correct? That should also take us out from here……"

Frey smacked his forehead.

"…Which reminds me, I haven't saved anything yet……"

"…… I guess you're right…" Arianna muttered quietly.

…

……

They kept on walking, and walking, and walking…

Until finally…

…

"Wow…" Frey said in amazement.

Now they were standing in front of a very huge frozen lake. Its surface was reflective of the sunlight from above, making it looked like a giant beautiful mirror. It was a beautiful sight to behold—Frey, once again, just couldn't believe that it was all just computer rendering…

Something that wasn't even real……

…

"Isn't this the lake we saw when we first arrived?" Arianna said, "Have we just been walking around in circles?"

"No, no, it's different," Frey said, "This one is most definitely bigger than the first one we saw when we first arrived, and besides… look over there: that thing wasn't there on the first lake."

Frey pointed his finger on a strange-looking structure located approximately near the center of the lake. It's like an open mouth of a cave.

…

Arianna observed it for a while, before she finally said,

"…I suppose t…that's the entrance to the Dungeon…" she mused, "Wow…… I've never actually seen one placed on top of a frozen lake like this…"

"Ho……" Frey said with an amused look on his face, "Does this mean we will go adventuring _under_ the lake? Like an underwater Dungeon sorts of thing? That's kind of awesome, actually!"

"I've never been to one too, actually…" Arianna muttered, "…Well, come to think of it, this is my first time visiting a snow-type area also…"

"…Well, what are waiting for then?" Frey clasped his hands, "The sooner we get to the Dungeon, the sooner we'll be able to accomplish our Mission, the sooner we can go back to Root Town, right?"

"Y…yeah…" she said, "Let's go…"

…

They both walked to the edge of the frozen lake, with eyes transfixed onto the entrance of the Dungeon.

Arianna hesitated a bit though, when she was supposed to put her feet on the lake's surface—like she's afraid that the ice might split wide open because of her weight. Frey, on the other hand, just jumped right in without a second thought.

…

……

"…_I don't get it_…" Frey pondered in his mind as he looked closely to the Lake's frozen surface, "_This should be just a game right_? _Virtual Reality stuff_? ……_And yet, how is it that I feel cold in my feet in real life when my virtual character's feet that touch the frozen ice_? _Did they really able to programming some sort of 'feelings simulation' too inside this game_?"

…

Frey didn't get to think about it much, however, because all of the sudden he heard a sudden -Bump!- voice from behind. When he turned around, he saw that Arianna fell to the ground—it appeared that she was slipping off her own feet.

"…Are you alright?" Frey said as he approached her—at first, he wanted to give her a hand to stand back up, but she hurriedly stood up on her own without giving him a chance to do so.

…

"I… I am fine!" Arianna said hastily, her face blushing crimson with her eyes looking on the ground, "I am fine! I…I was just… it's slippery and I was just a little careless and… HUH?"

She jumped a little, and because of that, she _again_ lost her balance and fell right back to the ground, with a particularly nasty -Bump- sound effect following quickly behind this time.

Frey was so close to laughing in front of Arianna because she fell twice consecutively—but he didn't do it because he saw a terrified look on her face.

…

"…What?" Frey asked, "…What happened?"

"U…u….u…uhh……" she trembled, her expression was horrified, "Uh…u…uh…"

"Hey!" Frey said again as he hastily grabbed her hands and pull her up so she could stand on her two feet again, "What's the matter with you all of the sudden?"

"…U…um… F…… Frey……" she said as she pointed her quaking hands, "…L…look… look over there! Down b…below!"

"Look what?" Frey followed the direction Arianna pointed, and…

…

……

"W……WHOA!" he yelled in shock.

He didn't fell to the ground like Arianna, but what he saw was definitely shocking.

…

……

-Zrrruuuuuuuuusssshhhh-

…-Zrrruuuuuuuussshhhhh-…

…

……

-Zrrrrruuuuuusssshhh-

…-Zrrrrrrrruuuuuussshhhhh-

…

……

Frey saw a shadow of something…

……

…Something _big_…

……Something _seriously_ _big_ was there…

…Below the lake…

……

Swimming…

All around under the frozen lake……

…

For the first time ever since they both entered this Area, Frey had a disturbed expression on his face.

"…W…what _is_ that?" Frey asked, "…Is that a monster?"

…

The shadow was shaped like a humongous eel—an _extremely large_ eel, and it swam effortlessly through here and there all around the lake like the entire lake was a territory that solely belonged to it.

…

It was an extraordinary—but also at the same time, eerie sight. The thought of having a really big mysterious creature moving around under your feet should be more than enough to distraught anyone, because you never knew what it might just do.

Even the sound of it swimming gracefully inside the water was more than enough to terrify anyone unfortunate enough to encounter it.

…

……Even Frey had to remind himself multiple times that what he saw in front of him was nothing more than just a program—a make believe—just in order to keep his heartbeat at a deliberate pace.

…

…Although the word 'terrified' was obviously an understatement to describe Arianna's condition right now.

She's still sitting in the ground, her scared eyes watching the mysterious creature's every move, and her body was shaking terribly.

…

"H…hey!" Frey said without looking at Arianna—he too, was watching the movement of the creature very intensely, "…What _is_ that thing? I… Is that a Boss Monster? Do we eventually have to fight it?"

"……I…I…. I don't…… I… I don't know…" Arianna stammered shakily, "…I… I've never seen anything like it before…… I…… I honestly didn't know t…that there's such a thing existed in The World……"

"…Well, it still doesn't change the fact that we must move and make a run above it in order to enter the Dungeon, right?" Frey quickly opened his character menu and equipped his spear—he severely doubted that his spear would help him much on this situation should the worst comes to worst, but at the very least the sight of him equipping a weapon was a lot better than him being empty-handed, "We still have to traverse through the lake to reach the entrance, right?"

…

-Zrrrruuuuuusssshhhh-

…

The creature swam like nobody's business, and it moved closer to where Frey and Arianna were standing—although it was only making a pass. It would appear that the monster has not yet spotted the pair above the surface.

…But Frey _sure did_ spot it. Now that the creature had moved closer to him, he could see that its real size was actually much bigger than he thought…

A giant eel…

……It's like a monster Hollywood movie or something…

It felt surreally scary…

…

"Hey!" Frey yelled to Arianna, "Come on! We have to move!"

Arianna didn't answer.

"I think it didn't spot us just yet!" he said, "If we make a run to the Dungeon's Entrance, we might even make it without it realizing us are here!"

Arianna still didn't answer.

"…And it might just not a monster we have to fight, right?" Frey said, "…It might be just some sort of a 'decoration monster' or something that the programmer of this game put to a scare to the players! You know, prank stuff!"

…

-Swooooossshhh-

The creature once again made a pass right under both Frey and Arianna.

Having a big black shadow moving around under you was definitely not a pleasant thing to have…

…

…And something happened that made that situation even _more_ unpleasant for Frey.

He saw something all of he sudden glimmering on the creature's front head when it swam right under him. It was just for two or three seconds, but he was sure that he saw an _eyeball_ looking _right at them_ at that exact moment.

The creature swam away from under Frey and Arianna, but Frey had this _really_ bad feeling that the next time it made a pass under their feet, it wouldn't just swimming under them and moving away again…

…

...The Frey in real life was sweating profoundly, and his heart-beat accelerated intensely. He repeatedly mumbled the mantra 'it's just a game' 'it's just a game' 'it's just a game', but this time the mantra didn't quite work as well as he expected to swoosh away his felling.

…

"Damn it!" he exclaimed as he turned his attention to Arianna, "Arianna, I think that _thing_ spotted us! Come on! We _have to move_!"

Arianna didn't say anything. She's still sitting on the ground, her eyes and her face looked really terrified, and her entire body was trembling. She did not even seem to listen what Frey just said.

"…Oh _man_…" Frey muttered.

He immediately grabbed one of her hands with his free hand and pulled her back forcefully. Arianna looked surprised by this act, but she didn't resist or even trying to pull off her hand from Frey's.

"Come on!" Frey yelled as he started to run to the Dungeon while towing Arianna with his right hand—it's rather difficult to do because by doing this he only have one hand to held his spear, but he didn't have any choice at the moment.

…

……

The pair continued to run as fast as they could towards the Dungeon's entrance. It seemed so close back then, but when they're desperately trying to reach it right now the entrance looked like so far away at the end of the world.

…

-Bump-

…-Bump-

With each step that brought them closer to their destination, Frey's heartbeat accelerated more intensely.

"F…F… Frey!" Arianna shouted to him, and Frey knew exactly what she's yelling about.

The shadow of the creature was moving towards them from the front, making a distinct swimming voice as it approached them.

For a split second, Frey considered to stop mid-way and changed their running direction, but in the end he decided to just move straight forward. The creature was moving so fast even when they changed direction it should be able to catch up to them easily anyway.

So he just charged forward and pray for the best.

…

-Zrrrrrrrrrrrsssshhhhhhh-

…

…Thankfully, the creature didn't do anything yet. It just bypassed them once again under their feet.

Sighing in relief, Frey hastened his steps towards the Dungeon's entrance. It shouldn't be too far now—they might be able to make it before the creature could do anything to them…

…

……

-Drap-

-Drap-

-Drap-

…

……

And then he saw it.

…When they were moving closer and closer towards the entrance, he saw it. He didn't know what it was, but his guts telling him that it wasn't good, and his feelings also stated the same.

It was some sort of a blue mist, and it exuded from the ground, covering the Dungeon's entrance from the bottom to the top.

Frey didn't know what it was, but Arianna didn't waste any time in screaming, "Oh no!" she said in horror, "…T…The Area Barrier!"

"Area Bar…?" Frey didn't even have time to finish his sentence when all of the sudden he heard the battle theme song running again in the background.

…

"_What_?" he muttered inside his mind, "_Battle Music_?"

Soon enough, there's a warning sentence of 'BATTLE ON' streaking across the screen. And unlike their first time, this time it was pretty obvious where and what their opponent would be.

…

Instinctively, Frey halted his advance just a few steps away from the entrance. He gazed at the blue mist with an observant glare.

"What is this thing?" he said.

"I…it's a barrier generated by the game," Arianna answered, "Um…, some sort of a restriction that blocks players' further advance. To clear the mist, players must first complete a certain task in the area or Dungeon's room where they're located. R…red mist means that there's a puzzle that should be broken first, yellow mist means that we have to carry specific item as a key in order to get through, a…and blue… blue means…"

"What?" Frey said as he turned his back, his eyes scanning his surroundings to search for cues as to the location of the giant monster—all he could grab with his senses was the sound of it swimming under the frozen lake _somewhere_ around them; it was very unnerving.

"B…Blue means we have to fight and defeat all the monsters in the Area where it is active first, b…before it dissipates…"

…

"You mean we have to defeat _that_ thing first?" Frey asked.

"…M…most likely," Arianna let go of her hand that was holding Frey's and opened her character menu. She then proceeded on equipping her own pair of twin blades, "…Uh…… I… I suppose that monster i…is a boss character of some sort…"

Even with her weapons on her hands, she didn't look even the slightest bit confident.

"Woah," Frey said as he readied his spear, "…I've never thought that my first fight will be against a boss character like this. Kind of scary…"

Arianna didn't say anything. Heck, she didn't even seem to listen to anything anymore.

…When Frey looked down, he could see that her legs were shaking—it was as if just standing upright was a difficult task to perform for her right now. The expression on her face was rather miserable, too.

…

…...

-Vrrroooossssssshhhhhhhh-

…

"Ack!" she suddenly yelled.

The shadow of the giant eel monster suddenly streaked below their feet, and it surprised both of them greatly, especially Arianna.

The shadow kept swimming forward, away from the pair, until suddenly…

…

……

It suddenly stopped.

It just stopped.

It was like the thing suspended itself inside the water.

It didn't move one bit.

…

"Whoa…" Frey muttered—he had a bad feeling about this, "It… it stopped. H…hey, Arianna—do you think we have a chance to beat it in a fight?"

"……"

Arianna didn't answer that question, but one look on her face was enough for Frey to deduce that the answer to that question according to her was not at all bright and optimistic.

…

"Huh…" Frey mumbled, "…Well, I am sure that there _should_ be some way that we can win this. After all, it's just a game, right?" Frey didn't even feel that his tone was reassuring, "… I mean, I am sure the programmer of this game wouldn't make a monster that is impossible to beat……"

"…" Arianna still didn't say anything—her eyes were still focused on the now not moving shadow of a big eel, not too far from where they stood. She's still trembling ever so slightly.

…

……

-Drrrrkkkkkk-

…

"Whoa," Frey said, as suddenly he could feel the ground was shaking.

"A…ack," Arianna muttered softly, because she obviously felt the same way too.

…

-Drrrrkkkkkk-

-Drrrrrrkkkkkkk-

…

The ground was shaking more and more violently—it didn't take too long for Arianna to, once again, lose her balance and fell down again on her behind.

…

"W…what the…?" Frey said, "Earthquake?"

When he cast his eyes towards the shadow of the big eel in front of him, he found to his discomfort that the monster was no longer just staying there, not moving.

…

…It _stirred_.

…

……It stirred crazily like a worm exposed to a very hot sunlight.

…

And each time the eel monster appeared to be stirring, the ground under their feet was moving violently.

…

"_That thing caused the earthquake_?" Frey said—and then it suddenly occurred to him; both he and Arianna were standing on top of a frozen lake. What would happen if the earthquake caused the frozen layer of the lake to crack and broken?

What if the frozen layer was unable to hold the strain caused by the earthquake and collapse?

…

The thought of falling down to an icy-cold lake—with a large eel-like _thing_ swimming in it—was _most definitely_ not something Frey would call pleasant. Though, the water down below was not really _real_, right? So it _should_ still be okay even if their characters fell into it, right? Since it's only a game after all…… the worst that could happen to them most probably would be just a game over screen……

…

……

-Fzzzzttt-

…

-Fzzzzzzzzzzztttt-

…

"Urgh!"

Suddenly, Frey felt a sharp pain striking his head.

The pain was so intense and unexpected, Frey immediately fell on his knees. His grip on the spear was loosened, and the weapon fell to the ground with a loud bouncing sound.

…

-Fzzzzztttttt-

……

"…F…Frey?" Arianna hastily stood back up and approached him, with a terribly worried look on her face, "…W…what's going on? W…what happened?"

…

-Fzzzzrrrttt-

……

"I……" Frey said as he held his head with his hands, "…I… I don't know… But my head s…suddenly hurts so bad, and… the screen is distorting, a…and there's a lot of loud interference noises…… Ugh…"

"B…but my screen is just fine!" Arianna quickly said, "M… maybe there's something wrong with your Virtual Displayer or something, o…or there's an error in your PC, o…or perhaps there's a cable loose in your hardware or something, o…or… maybe there's some problem with the electricity in your house, o…or maybe…"

The eel monster stirred inside the lake again, and once more the ground was shaking—it effectively put a stop to Arianna's panicked blabber.

…

"…Yeah…" Frey muttered slowly, "Perhaps my Virtual Displayer is acting up… _Damn_, this is so annoying…"

…

-DrrrrRRrrrr-

The ground still shaking…

……-DrrrrrRrrrrr-

…And shaking…

…

……

And then it stopped.

The eel monster suddenly just stopped.

The ground also calmed down—but since it stopped so sudden, Frey thought that something _not good_ would just about to happen. Apparently, Arianna was also thinking the same because she had that terribly worried look on her face as she stared at the shadow of the eel monster.

…

And then indeed, something happened.

"F…Frey!" Arianna yelled as she pointed to the direction of the monster, "Look! M…maybe it's going to do something!"

Frey looked up.

…

Apparently, Frey's not the only one that looked up.

From where they stood, both Frey and Arianna were able to see that the eel monster was…… seemingly……, looking _up_.

…

"…W…what's its going to do?" Arianna said shakily.

Before Frey could even think of an answer to her question,

-DRAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKK-

All of the sudden, the eel monster jettisoned itself up with a very fast launch. It launched itself to the air, leaving a very huge hole on the surface of the frozen lake. It flew high—very high, it managed to block the light coming from the sun.

Both Frey and Arianna didn't have any time to get shocked—although it was obvious that they did, _greatly_—because something even more extraordinary happened.

…

-SRRSSSSSHHHT-

-SPLAT-

-SPLAT-

They were like a voice of a bug getting squished by a large object, only magnified perhaps a hundred times louder so that Frey and Arianna could hear them crystal clear in their speaker.

"…What the…?" Frey muttered—he still felt some sort of pain whizzing his head, but what he saw right now clearly was a much more of a concern for him.

…

-SPLAAARRTTT-

At first, the eel monster was wiggling like crazy in mid-air… but soon after that, unbelievably, all of the sudden there were both pairs of arms and legs bursting out from its main body! The sound of them bursting out was even more unpleasant than ever, and before both Frey and Arianna could even _comprehend_ this new development fully in their heads, the eel flipped like an acrobatic master, and then landed swiftly with his legs on the top of the frozen lake's surface, causing another small tremor on the ground.

…

……

"…C…crazy…" was all Frey could say when he saw the creature that's standing in front of him, "W…what the hell……?"

It was a very large eel, facing upwards, with hands on each side of its upper body, also with a pair of legs on each side of its lower body. Its entire body was covered with some sort of disgusting slime that sled down to the ground very slowly… but the slime that went down from its body to the ground was very quickly replaced by another same slime seemingly coming out from its own very skin.

The monster's skin also constantly moving forward and backward in a slow but constant manner, like it was breathing air on its own—and each time it moved, it made that terrible sound like a bug getting squashed.

What's even more eerie about the creature was the fact that there's a single, large round red-colored _eyeball_ stuck on approximately the center of the monster's height, and the eye was gazing at both Frey and Arianna—the latter whom seemingly almost collapsed to the ground from sheer pressure alone. It looked like this monster didn't have any mouth whatsoever, because Frey wasn't able to notice one—and he did not have even the slightest desire to check its location.

…

The monster once again wriggled, like some sort of a truly despicable looking and exceptionally horrendous hula dancer. Its hands were flailing like crazy, and the slime covering its entire body was thrown all over the place around it because of its movement.

…

……

-Fzzzzzzzzrtttt-

…-Frrzzzzzzzzzzzttt-

…

"Damn it…" Frey felt another pain striking his head as his screen distorted and loud interference noises invaded his speakers once again, "…Stupid faulty gadget…" he muttered with a very annoyed look on his face.

…

He _really_ never thought before that on his very first time on playing The World, he would be thrown into this kind of situation. All of his friends at school suggested that he should play this game because 'The World is very exciting!', but he surely didn't expect _this_ kind of excitement. Getting thrown into an Area nobody has entered before, experienced a lot of—as Arianna would say—'weirdness', and the _best _of all, on what would most definitely be his real first fight, he, a mere level one player, must come face to face with…

……

With…

……

…With _that_…

…

The monster still hasn't moved forward to Frey and Arianna, but Frey felt quite safely sure that the gross-looking eyeball staring directly at them was a sign that the monster wouldn't just stand there all day doing nothing.

"Arianna!" he said urgently to his partner as he lifted his spear from the ground and turned its blade to the monster's direction—for the time being, Frey tried his best to dismiss the pain swelling in his head. He was determined not to avert his eyes from the monster, "…What should we do now? Do you have any idea?"

…

"Arianna!" Frey shouted.

He glanced at her, and all it took was just one look at her, and Frey could immediately see that she was terrified……… _extremely_ terrified. Her eyes were staring at the monster, but her expression looked really, really miserable. It's like she _really_ wanted to look at another direction, but she just couldn't do it—like some invisible hands forcibly holding her head so that she couldn't turn it away even just for a moment.

She's still standing, and she's still holding her weapons on her hands, but she's trembling greatly, and seemingly unable to move even slightly……

It looked like all that's required was just another slight—_very_ slight—pressure of any kind, and she might just collapse here and now.

…

"…F…F…Fr…Frey…" she said with a quaking voice, "…T…T…This is…"

She trembled.

"…T…t…t…" she stammered, "T…t…that… that m…m…m….monster…"

Frey didn't say anything as he listened to her,

…

"I…I…I…it's not…" she stuttered, "…I…It's not… It's n…not a m… a monster of The W…World……"

She was shivering.

…

"…I… It couldn't be…" she faltered, "Th… the…there's n…no way t…that that… monster…… i…is from The World……I…It can't be… Th… there can't be… a…… a…… a thing like _that_ in this g…game…"

…

……

"…" Frey didn't say anything.

…

…Because for some reason, Frey found himself agreeing with her.

He knew that the makers of this game really went out to make The World as real as humanly possible for the players. And perhaps, in that spirit, they created a lot of interesting, detailed, and scary looking monster characters for players of The World to combat during their adventure in this game—well, they _should_ be scary, because monsters by definition _should_ appear scary, right?

Like any other aspects of The World he already saw, he wouldn't be surprised to see that the makers of the game also went full-force of creating a repertoire of neat-looking and fun-to-battle monsters roaming in the game…

…

…But that's just that. Those monsters were made for the fun of the players.

…

……

…And yet, this one was different.

……

This one monster in front of them—a hideous-looking monster with disgusting slime protruding its entire body…

…Frey just somehow could feel that this kind of _thing_ was _not_ something the designers of this game would create for the sake of the players. Frey couldn't explain it really well, but he could feel some sort of…… _malicious_ vibe… when he saw that creature.

…It felt like both him and Arianna were in _real_ danger—not just video-game danger, but _real _danger. Like they were both now stuck inside a situation with _real_ potential harm to their _real _safety and well-being.

…

……

"…I……I…" Frey was snapped back from his reverie by Arianna's stutter, "……F…Frey…"

She looked really terrified.

"…I… I d…don't know…" she trembled, "…I…don't know… I…if I can do this…… I am… sorry, Frey…"

…

Frey closed his eyes for a second.

"Don't worry about it, Arianna," Frey said firmly as he once again gluing his eyes to the monster, his spear held high against it, "……I'll do something about this. I don't know _how_, but _somehow_ I'll make sure both you and I will be able to get out from this situation all safe and sound…"

…

Arianna glanced at Frey.

…

…She's staring at him meaningfully. Her tremble reduced slightly.

…

……

"So just relax, okay?" Frey added.

…

……

"I…… uh…" she muttered quietly, "……T… thanks…"

…

……

Frey didn't answer her, because right now he focused his entire attention to the monster.

The monster all of the sudden stopped its movement. It didn't wriggle like crazy anymore, and its hands were not flailing madly anymore.

It just…

Stopped.

…

……

"_This is not good_…" Frey said inside his mind—the monster's eyeball was staring intently at both him and Arianna, and Frey somehow got a very strong hunch that it's going to do something…_ fast_.

…

……

And then…

"Arianna!" he yelled out loud, "_Here it comes_!"

-- **o0** **To Be Continued 0o--**


End file.
